: 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

AT  LOS  angele: 


A  WOMAN 
OF  WIT   AND   WISDOM 


A  WOMAN 
OF  WIT  AND  WISDOM 


A   MEMOIR   OF    ELIZABETH    CARTER 

ONE   OF   THE 

*BAS    BLEU'    SOCIETY 

(1717-1806) 


BY 

ALICE   C.  C.  GAUSSEN 

AUTHOR  OF    '  A   LATER   PEPYS ' 


WITH   PORTRAITS,   ILLUSTRATIONS 
AND   FACSIMILE 


NEW  YORK:  E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

31    WEST    TWENTY-THIRD    STREET 
1906 


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DA 


PREFACE 


Few  but  the  most  enthusiastic  students  of  the 
eighteenth  century  can  find  time  to  dig  for  the 
hidden  treasures  that  lie  buried  in  the  numerous 
volumes  containing  the  life  and  letters  of  Mrs. 
Elizabeth   Carter.      To  throw   light  upon  the 
t\       brilliant  picture  of  her  personality,  brimful  of 
animation,  and  of  mental  and  physical  activity, 
and  to  focus  the  many  side-lights  that  stream  in 
from  various  sources  upon  the  stage  on  which 
>^       this  remarkable  woman  moved,  with  men  and 
^      women  of  genius  clustering  in  the  foreground, 
^       it  is  necessary  to  explore  the  mass  of  contem- 
V        porary  literature  that  recalls  her  times,  and  the 
ofifted  circle  to  which  she  beloncred. 

The  endeavour  to  bring  back,  however 
faintly,  even  a  breath  of  the  atmosphere  of 
those  days  that  are  long  since  gone  is  a  re- 
freshing and  invigorating  task.  No  picture  can 
ever  be  complete.     There  must  always  be  a  side 


VI 


PREFACE 


that  is  not  shown.     Every  artist  has  a  tendency 
to  catch  the  characteristics  that  appeal  to  him- 
self, and  give  his  sitter  somewhat  of  his  own 
expression,  as  in  the  French  fable  each  animal 
asserted  that  the  harlequin  was  entirely  of  his 
own  hue.     But  it  is  in  the  expression  that  the 
likeness  consists,  and  it  is  just  this  that  is  to 
be  found  surviving  in  the  quaint  and  original, 
though  perhaps  slightly  eccentric  character  of 
Elizabeth  Carter.     Though  the  versatility  of  her 
thoughts  and  sayings  may  make  the  narrative 
appear  to  a  certain  extent  disjointed,   I  have 
tried,  as    far    as  possible,  to   tell  the  story  of 
her  life  in  her  own  words,  gathered  from  all 
sources,  for  it  is  only  by  letting  the  real  Mrs. 
Carter  speak  for  herself  that  we  can  see  her  as 
she  was. 

Erratic  and  eccentric  she  could  only  appear 
to  those  who  mistrust  the  unconventional,  and 
hesitate  to  say  and  write  what  they  really  think. 
Elizabeth  Carter  spoke  her  mind  without  dis- 
guise, for  the  simple  reason  that  of  her  inmost 
thoughts  she  had  no  reason  to  be  ashamed. 
Reserve,  while  adding  force  and  dignity  to  the 
strongest  characters,  may  if  carried  too  far 
stifle  and  kill  originality,  and  reduce  them  to  a 
conventional  dead  level.      Mrs.  Carter,  though 


PREFACE  vii 

she  '  lets  herself  go,'  is  entirely  free  from  the 
opposite  extreme  of  gush  and  sentimentality. 
Epictetus  taught  men  to  restrain,  but  not  sup- 
press, the  movements  of  the  heart. 

It  was  a  strong  sympathy  between  the 
ancient  philosopher  Epictetus  and  his  eigh- 
teenth-century translator,  Elizabeth  Carter, 
which  led  her  after  the  lapse  of  many  centuries 
to  reveal  him  to  English  readers.  Both  were 
thinkers  ;  both  were  sufferers  ;  both  bore  their 
sufferings  cheerfully  according  to  their  different 
lights,  and  both  were  philosophers. 

Mrs.  Carter  saw  no  virtue  in  suffering.  She 
did  not  demand  that  the  narrow  path  should 
be  full  of  thorns  ;  but  was  content  with  those 
already  planted  there,  and  did  not  insist  on  the 
spiked  girdle  and  other  self-imposed  aids  to 
mental  and  physical  discomfort.  For  this, 
some  will  condemn  her  as  too  self-satisfied  and 
optimistic. 

On  the  other  hand,  her  childlike  faith  and 
implicit  assurance  of  a  joyful  hereafter  will  not 
be  in  accordance  with  the  more  fashionable 
views  of  those  who  hold  the  doctrine  '  Carpe 
diem.'  Between  these  two  extremes  she  steered 
a  middle  course,  but  in  that  happy  medium, 
where    truth    is    generally    to    be    found,    she 


viii  PREFACE 

escaped  mediocrity.  Her  rule,  like  that  of 
Epictetus,  was  '  bear  and  forbear ; '  she  just 
went  her  own  way,  and  left  other  people  to  go 
theirs.  She  never  tried,  like  the  man  in  the 
fable,  to  carry  the  donkey,  or  to  pose  in  un- 
natural attitudes. 

Elizabeth  Carter  possessed  a  genius  for 
friendship  that  prevented  her  life  being  a  lonely 
one,  though  in  some  respects  it  was  solitary, 
as  the  lives  of  all  must  be  whose  thoughts  and 
aspirations  are  not  quite  normal,  or  on  a  level 
with  that  of  their  average  fellow-creatures,  for 
the  probability  of  being  associated  with  those 
of  like  mind,  scattered  here  and  there  in  the 
world  and  up  and  down  the  ages,  is  always 
remote.  From  her  inability  to  make  talk,  she  was 
held  of  small  account  by  those  '  Deal  misses ' 
whose  chatter  only  reflected  the  local  gossip  of 
their  native  town,  and  no  one  could  suppose 
that  any  of  the  '  Strephons '  who  in  her  youth 
had  done  her  the  honour  of  wishing  to  marry 
her  would  have  proved  congenial  companions 
through  life.  Neither  the  faithless  versifier  to 
whom  she  was  really  attached,  nor  the  im- 
petuous youth  whose  '  wig  was  always  in  an 
uproar,'  nor  yet  the  inquisitive  Yorkshireman 
would  have  added  to  her  happiness  or  useful- 


PREFACE  ix 

ness.  As  to  those  grave  prelates,  statesmen, 
and  men  of  letters  who  in  her  later  years  the 
world  declared  would  marry  Madam  Carter, 
she  was  far  too  sensible  a  woman  to  mistake 
their  friendship  and  respect  for  any  other  senti- 
ment, or  to  suppose  that  they  had  '  any  such  in- 
tention,' However,  under  other  circumstances, 
she  would  no  doubt  have  accommodated  herself 
cheerfully  to  their  idiosyncrasies  as  she  did  to 
those  of  her  own  relations.  She  never  com- 
plained of  being  misunderstood  by  her  family, 
that  constant  lamentation  of  the  egotistical 
which  a  present-day  preacher  wisely  meets  with 
the  prompt  assurance  that  the  family  of  the 
interesting  sufferer  understand  her  only  too 
well. 

Mrs.  Carter's  life  was  spent  to  a  great 
extent  in  retirement,  but  her  outlook  on  the 
world  from  her  little  '  vinegar  bottle '  at  Deal, 
like  that  of  Epictetus  from  his  hut  at  Rome, 
was  one  of  an  acute  and  judicious  observer  of 
manners,  and  her  instructions,  like  his,  were 
free  from  dogmatism,  vanity,  or  rudeness.  She 
was  a  woman  of  the  world  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word.  By  her  little  touches  of  humour 
she  shows  how  much  she  knew  of  human 
nature  and   its  ways.     She  never  sneers,   nor 


X  PREFACE 

frowns,  nor  grumbles ;  she  is  never  cynical, 
nor  sarcastic,  nor  contemptuous  ;  but  she  has 
a  wonderful  way  of  hitting  hard  and  hitting 
straight.  If  at  times  she  seems  to  soar  in  the 
clouds,  she  always  manages  to  come  down  on 
her  feet.  Her  flights  of  imagination  are  just 
enough  to  give  us  for  one  instant  an  additional 
peep  of  that  smile  which  beams,  and  plays,  and 
twinkles,  and  hovers  over  her  whole  character, 
as  it  is  conjured  up  to  us. 

It  has  been  said  that  in  common  with  other 
of  the  '  Bas  Bleu '  ladies,  Elizabeth  Carter 
lacked  a  certain  lightness  of  touch  ;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  it  is  always  easier  to  float 
gracefully  and  quietly  with  the  stream  than 
to  pull  vigorously  against  it,  and  those  who 
joined  Dr.  Johnson  in  his  endeavour  '  to  make 
mankind  more  reasonable  creatures,'  trod  the 
thorny  path  of  the  reformer. 

Her  eager  activities  in  the  early  morning 
hours  may  perhaps  give  the  idea  of  restlessness. 
There  is  an  impetus  in  the  woman  which  might 
expose  her  to  the  charge  of  having  been  impul- 
sive and  headstrong,  and  unable  to  sit  still.  But 
we  look  again,  and  see  her  at  her  work,  and 
her  assiduity  is  such,  she  is  so  riveted,  so  con- 
centrated, that  we  seem  to  find  her  all  at  once 


PREFACE 


XI 


transformed  to  a  silent,  motionless  statue,  totally 
absorbed,  and  wholly  unconscious  of  every- 
thing except  her  task.  She  also  knows  how 
to  rest,  and  can  enjoy  '  basking  in  the  sun, 
indolently  happy,  mighty  tranquil,  in  an  abso- 
lute vacation  of  all  thought.'  Both  in  repose 
and  in  action  she  possesses  a  charm  and  dignity 
which  her  marvellous  vitality  and  vivacity  only 
serve  to  enhance. 

It  speaks  well  for  the  bracing  climate  of 
Deal  that  such  a  character  should  have  been 
nurtured  there.  Like  the  sea,  which  is  ever 
changing  its  tints  only  to  reveal  fresh  beauties, 
so  this  hardy  child  of  nature  seems  to  breathe 
the  fresh  sea  air  of  her  native  place  all  through 
her  life.  Like  the  sea-gull  that  rests  calmly  on 
the  crest  of  the  stormy  wave,  or  skims  along  it 
and  dives  for  its  prey,  so  this  lady  of  many 
sides  and  accomplishments  seems  to  have  been 
here,  there,  and  everywhere,  roaming  free  and 
unfettered  in  the  very  largeness  of  her  own 
expanse  and  outlook.  The  hard  strain  of  work 
brought  her  no  weariness,  no  reaction,  for  she 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  looking  back  ;  she  was 
far  too  interested  ever  to  be  bored.  With  her, 
ennui  was  impossible.  There  is  a  bonhoinie 
about  her  that  speaks  for  itself,  and  the  object 


Xll 


PREFACE 


of  this  book  will  be  fulfilled  if  it  puts  its  readers 
in  touch  with  the  clever,  kindly  cheerfulness 
which  belongs  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Carter,  and  is 
peculiarly  her  own. 

I  desire  to  express  my  thanks  to  Mr.  Robert 
Brudenell  Carter,  whose  grandfather,  Henry 
Carter,  was  half-brother  to  Elizabeth,  and  until 
he  entered  the  University  was  entirely  edu- 
cated by  her.  Besides  writing  the  genealogical 
appendix  relating  to  the  Carter  family,  Mr. 
Brudenell  Carter  has  allowed  me  to  use  letters 
and  papers  in  his  possession,  and  two  books  of 
hitherto  unpublished  correspondence  that  were 
kindly  placed  at  his  disposal  by  the  Mayor  of 
Deal  and  the  'Carter  Institute'  in  that  town. 
Also  I  desire  to  thank  Mr.  Taylor-Whitehead 
for  his  kindness  in  making  researches  and 
furnishing  me  with  many  interesting  facts. 

The  portrait  of  Bishop  Hayter  has  been 
reproduced,  by  kind  permission  of  the  Bishop 
of  London,  from  the  picture  at  Fulham  Palace, 
and  the  view  of  Deal,  by  the  courtesy  of  Mr. 
Soutter,  from  an  engraving  in  his  possession. 

For  most  of  the  other  illustrations  I  am 
indebted  to  Mr.  Brudenell  Carter.  The 
original  medallion,  reproduced  on  the  cover  of 
the  book,  was  modelled   from   the  life  in  wax. 


PREFACE 


Xlll 


and  cast  in  hard  white  enamel  paste  by  James 
Tassie  (1735-90),  the  well-known  Glasgow 
artist,  who  settled  in  London  in  1766.  He  exe- 
cuted portraits  of  Adam  Smith  and  many  other 
eminent  Scotsmen.  Specimens  of  his  work  are 
now  rare  in  this  country,  as  they  have  been 
largely  acquired  by  American  collectors.  But 
there  is  a  collection  of  his  medallions  in  the 
Scottish  National  Portrait  Gallery.  His  me- 
dallion of  Elizabeth  Carter  is  enclosed  in  a 
crystal  pendant,  and  bears  the  monogram  of 
her  sister,  Mrs.  Douglas,  at  the  back.  It  passed 
afterwards  into  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Carter's 
niece,  the  Princesse  de  Vismes  et  de  Penthievre, 
and  is  now  owned  by  Mr.  Brudenell  Carter. 

In  this,  as  in  all  my  work,  I  acknowledge 
the  kind  help  and  advice  that  I  have  found 
literary  friends  ever  ready  to  give, 

Alice  C.  C.  Gaussen. 

88  Eaton  Place  :  February  1906. 


/ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPIER  PAGE 

vii 


PREFACE  

I      'a  long  life  without  a  story 

IL       DEAL    .  .  .  .  .  . 


in.     MRS.  carter's  views  on  marriage 

IV.      ARCHBISHOP  SECKER  AND  CATHARINE  TALBOT 

V.       MRS.     carter's    literary    WORKS    AND     PHILO 
SOPHICAL   VIEWS 

VI.  SOCIETY 

VII.  DR.    JOHNSON 

VIII.  MRS.    MONTAGU 

IX.  MRS.    VESEY 

X.  LORD    BATH  ...... 

XI.  SPA    AND    FOREIGN    TOUR  .... 

XII.  BODY    AND   MIND 

APPENDIX  :  GENEALOGICAL  NOTE.    BY  ROBERT 
BRUDENELL  CARTER,  F.R.C.S. 


I 

29 
60 
78 

92 

161 

189 
202 

227 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


ELIZABETH  CARTER Frontispiece 

From  a  crayon  drawing  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence, 
P.R.A.,  iti  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

DEAL       ........    To  face  p.    30 

From  an  etigraving  after  a  painting  by  J.   W.  M. 
Turner,  R.A.) 

THOMAS    HAYTER,    BISHOP   OF    LONDON  .  ,,  66 

F7-om  a  painting  in  Fulham  Palace. 

SAMUEL   RICHARDSON ,,70 

Fro7n  a  painting  by  Joseph  Highmorein  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery. 

CATHARINE   TALBOT „  78 

From  the  frontispiece  to  '  The    Works  of  the  late 
Miss  Catharine  Talbot,'  1812. 

THOMAS    SECKER,    ARCHBISHOP    OF    CANTER- 
BURY   .......  „  100 

From  an  engraving  after  a  painting  by  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  P. R.A. 

BOOK    PLATE    OF    ELIZABETH    CARTER  .       .  „  1 28 

SAMUEL  JOHNSON,    LL.D.  ...  „  162 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  P.  R.A.) 

WILLIAM    PULTENEY,    EARL   OF    BATH  .       .  ,,  202 

From  a  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  P.R.A.,  in 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery. ) 

ANCELL  MONUMENT  IN  GREAT  BARFORD 

CHURCH ,,    256 

From  a  photograph. 


FACSIMILE  OF  A  LETTER  FROM  ELIZABETH 
CARTER  TO  HER  BROTHER,  DATED  NO- 
VEMBER   I,    1798        ....  „         186 


CHRONOLOGICAL     TABLE 


Elizabeth  Carter  was  born  in 1717 

Wrote  verses  in  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine,'  signed 

'Eliza' 1734 

Published  a  small  collection  of  poems  .  .  .  1738 
Translated  from  the  French  an  attack  on    Pope's 

'  Essay  on  Man,' by  M.  Crousaz  .  .  .  .  1739 
Translated  from  the  Italian  Algarotti's  '  Newtonian- 

ismo  per  le  Dame '       ......  1739 

Commenced  her  translation  of  Epictetus  at  the  re- 
quest of  Archbishop  Seeker      1749 

Published  her  translation  of   Epictetus   by  guinea 

subscription  .......  1758 

Printed  a  second  collection  of  poems,  dedicated  to 

Lord  Bath 1762 

Removed  to  a  house  of  her  own  at  Deal  .  .  .  1762 
Travelled   on   the   Continent   with   Mr.    and    Mrs. 

Montagu  and  Lord  Bath  .         .         .         .         .    .  1763 

Lost  her  friend,  William  Pulteney,  Earl  of  Bath        .  1764 

Archbishop  Seeker  died 1768 

Catharine  Talbot  died 1770 

Dr.  Nicholas  Carter  (her  father)  died  .         .         .    .  1774 

Dr.  Johnson  died     .......  1784 

Mrs.   Carter  was  presented  to  Queen  Charlotte  at 

Lord  Cremorne's  house  at  Chelsea   .         .         .    .  1791 

Died  February  19    .         .         .         .         .         .         .  1806 


A  WOMAN 

OF 

WIT  AND  WISDOM 

CHAPTER  I 

'  A    LONG    LIFE    WITHOUT    A    STORY ' 

As  the  personality  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Carter 
claims  our  attention,  more  than  either  her  life 
or  works,  her  uneventful  career,  marked  by  few 
of  the  epochs  which  form  the  milestones  of 
the  individual  life,  is  best  recorded  in  her  own 
quaint  phraseology.  No  attempt  has  been 
made  to  modernise  her  language,  which  is 
characteristic  both  of  herself  and  her  period  ; 
all  that  she  wrote,  said,  or  thought  has,  as  far 
as  possible,  been  interwoven  into  the  story, 
which  was  the  method  by  which  Boswell  said 
'mankind  were  enabled  to  see  his  hero  live.' 
Modern  English  she  could  not   endure.     She 

B 


2  A    WOMAN    OF 

lived  to  see  the  mushroom  growth  of  a  new 
language,  filled  with  phrases  which  nobody- 
could  have  understood  when  she  was  young, 
and  there  seemed  to  be  such  a  rage  for  writing  ; 
and  '  Oh,  lack  !  What  writing,'  as  somebody- 
used  to  say,  '  what  writation  it  all  is ! '  It  was 
her  woeful  destiny  on  one  occasion  to  entertain 
a  Beauty,  who  made  most  fearful  counterfeit 
coinage  of  the  current  language  of  this  land. 
Happily,  she  could  not  foresee  the  modern 
young  woman,  who  is  not  even  as  *  a  jewel  of 
gold  in  a  swine's  snout,'  for  she  often  lacks 
beauty  as  well  as  discretion,  and  will  tell  you 
with  a  languid  drawl,  that  she  is  '  so  fearfully 
devoted  to  electric  light.'  Only  when  the 
phrase  had  meaning,  when  under  the  influence 
of  strong  emotion  she  thought  the  whole  cir- 
culation of  her  blood  would  have  stopped,  did 
Elizabeth  Carter  declare  she  had  never  seen 
or  felt  anything  so  ^shockingly  well  acted'  as 
the  part  of  Shylock. 

To  Epictetus's  uneventful  life  and  circum- 
scribed surroundings  Dean  Farrar  applies  the 
saying,  that  '  Great  men  have  often  the 
shortest  biographies,  their  real  life  is  in  their 
books  ;'  it  might  equally  be  said  of  his  translator, 
Elizabeth    Carter,    that    her    life  was    in    her 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  3 

quaint  personality,  well-regulated  mind,  and  her 
shrewd  and  witty  sayings. 

She  was  born  on  December  16,  171 7,  at 
Deal,  and  passed  the  greater  part  of  her  life  in 
those  regions  of  obscurity  and  dulness  where 
nothing  remarkable  ever  happened  since  the 
landing  of  Julius  Caesar,  and  all  that  took 
place  ten  miles  distant  was  absolutely  unknown  ; 
thence  she  could  transmit  no  journal  but  a  table 
of  the  tides,  or  a  register  of  the  weather.  P'or 
the  journal  that  consists  of  facts  must  contain 
facts  of  great  consequence.  But  in  her  quiet 
and  obscure  life  she  read,  wrote,  thought,  and 
felt,  and  the  whole  wide  creation  was  open  to 
her  observation. 

Elizabeth  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  Nicholas  Carter,  D.D.,  Perpetual  Curate 
of  the  chapel  that  was  erected  in  Deal  when 
the  church  was  found  to  be  too  small  and  dis- 
tant. Dr.  Carter  was  one  of  the  six  preachers 
in  Canterbury  Cathedral.  At  the  age  of  ten 
she  lost  her  mother,  whose  death  was  attributed 
to  vexation  at  the  loss  of  a  handsome  fortune 
she  had  brought  her  husband.  The  bursting 
of  the  South  Sea  Bubble  in   1720  swept  away 

the  greater  part  of  it,  and  the  poor  lady,  who 

B  2 


4  A    WOMAN    OF 

had  not  the  spirit  to  conquer  fate,  fell  into  a 
gradual  decline. 

A  perfect  knowledge  of  French,  acquired  at 
an  early  age  from  a  Huguenot  refugee  minister 
at  Canterbury,  was  the  foundation  of  Elizabeth 
Carter's  education ;  her  father  taught  her, 
together  with  her  brothers,  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew,  though  the  slowness  of  her  apprehen- 
sion tired  out  his  patience.  Italian,  Spanish, 
and  German  she  taught  herself  without  any 
assistance,  and  later  in  life  she  set  herself  to 
learn  Portuguese,  but  for  want  of  books  she 
made  no  great  progress.  Lastly,  she  taught 
herself  Arabic,  and  made  an  Arabic  Dictionary, 
containing  various  meanings  of  words  which 
elsewhere  had  been  improperly  translated. 

Louis  XV.,  when  his  daughter's  lectrice 
confessed  to  being  only  familiarly  acquainted 
with  two  foreign  languages,  replied  '  En  voila 
bien  assez  pour  faire  enrager  un  mari.'  Eliza- 
beth Carter,  however,  inflicted  her  learning  on 
no  man. 

Youthful  prodigies  were  not  unknown  or 
unapproved  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Lord 
and  Lady  Grey's  little  girl,  '  just  turned 
five,  had  no  joy  but  in  books  which  she 
picked  out  for  herself,'  and  her  favourite  read- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  5 

ing   was    Dr.    Newton's    '  Dissertation  on  the 
Prophecies.' 

We  also  hear  of  a  beautiful  girl  of  eighteen 
who  had  written  two  plays,  two  novels,  two 
sermons,  and  several  poems,  and  was  engaged 
in  writing  comments  on  the  book  of  the  Reve- 
lation, on  which  subject  she  was  corresponding 
with  a  Dignitary  of  the  Church. 

Like  Lord  Macaulay,  who  acquired  the  gift 
of  tongues  by  reading  the  Bible,  Elizabeth 
Carter  held  that  grammar  ought  to  be  a  con- 
segttence  of  understanding  a  language  rather 
than  an  aid  to  learning  it.  Grammar  as  a 
general  science  she  understood  well,  but  not  as 
taught  in  schools,  and  though  considered  by 
Dr.  Johnson  to  possess  a  more  thorough 
knowledge  of  Greek  than  anyone  he  ever  knew, 
she  would  contemptuously  declare  she  had 
never  learnt  either  Latin  or  Greek  grammar. 
A  short  daily  reading  in  each  language  enabled 
her  to  keep  what  she  had  acquired,  but  the 
penalty  of  such  unwearied  application  during 
her  early  years  was  life-long  suffering  from 
severe  headaches,  and  throughout  her  career 
'  her  untoward  head  was  mighty  apt  to  frus- 
trate many  an  honest  intention  of  her  heart.' 

In  spite  of  her  father's  protests,  she  con- 


6  A    WOMAN    OF 

tracted  a  habit  which   she  was  never  able  to 
shake  off,  of  taking  snuff  to  keep  herseff  awake 
during  her  midnight  studies,  and  she  used  also 
to  put  a  wet  towel  round  her  head,  and  chew 
green   tea   and   coffee.     But   she    soon    found 
herself  obliged  to  avoid  all   *  intemperance  in 
Hebrew  and  Greek,'  for  if  she  did  not  content 
herself  with  a  moderate  degree  of  application 
(eight   to   twelve  hours    a   day),   her  perverse 
temperament    rendered    her    incapable  of  any 
application   at  all.     However,   an  aching  head 
proved  an  excellent  antidote  against  a  giddy 
one,  and  there  was  no  fear  of  its  being  turned 
round  like  a  whirligig  by  the  perpetual  motion 
of  London  life ;   it  also  made  her  very  philo- 
sophical as  to  all  vanities  of  a  hat  and  feathers. 
Had  many  of  the  speakers  in  both  Houses  been 
similarly  afflicted,  she  believed  it  would   have 
greatly  tended  to  the  good  order  and  quiet  of 
the    nation,    but    trembling    nerves    she   found 
were  a  much  greater  bar  to    knowledge  than 
the  heaviest   weight   of  dulness.     When    Dr. 
Johnson  complained   of  tooth-ache    a  voluble 
Frenchman,   regardless  of  probable  cause  and 
effect,  exclaimed   '  Ah,   Monsieur,  vous  etudiez 
trop ! ' 

At  one   time  she    made    considerable  pro- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  7 

gress    in     astronomy.       A    friend    wrote     to 
her: 

*  You  have  been  so  taken  up  with  the  stars 
that  you  forget  us  poor  mortals  here  below. 
Your  mind  and  body  have  quarrelled  lately, 
and  are  separated — in  plain  English,  your  wits 
are  gone  a  wool-gathering.  Build  no  castles 
in  the  air,  forsake  your  imaginary  palace  in 
the  Milky  Way,  and  bless  us,  your  quondam 
friends,  with  your  pleasant  conversation. 

'  P.S. — A  great  many  people  here  run 
mad.' 

Her  severe  studies  were  varied  by  equally 
severe  recreation,  which  she  thus  described : 

*  I  have  played  the  rake  enormously  these 
last  two  days,  and  sat  up  till  near  three  in  the 
morning.  I  walked  three  miles  in  a  wind  that 
I  thought  would  have  blown  me  out  of  this 
planet,  danced  nine  hours,  and  then  walked 
back  again.  I  am  not  so  devoted  to  these 
earthly  entertainments  but  that  I  still  retain  a 
great  regard  to  the  stars.' 

*  Dancing,'  she  said,  'was  not  an  argument 
of  being  either  well  or  happy.'  It  seemed  odd 
that,  having  thought  of  little  but  books  at 
fifteen,  she  should  at  five-and-twenty  run  mad 
after    balls     and    assemblies ;     however,     she 


8  A    WOMAN    OF 

declared  she  was  too  inconsistent  in  her  follies 
to  be  long  under  the  power  of  any  one,  and  per- 
haps the  next  might  be  learning  the  Chinese 
language  or  studying  Duns  Scotus  and  Thomas 
Aquinas. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-two  Elizabeth  Carter 
consulted  a  doctor,  who  gave  her  little  hopes 
of  '  a  cure  on  this  side  of  the  grave,'  alternate 
succession  of  ease  and  pain  was  all  he  could 
prophesy  for  her  through  life.  She  sub- 
sequently enjoyed  nearly  seventy  years  of 
vigorous  health,  that  must  have  inclined  her 
to  distrust  physicians  who  assume  the  role  of  a 
prophet. 

She  therefore  was  very  careful  of  her  health, 
and  upon  that  principle  '  exceedingly  afraid  of 
doctors ; '  of  all  considerations  next  to  a  good 
conscience,  health,  she  said,  was  the  most  im- 
portant, as  the  sine  qtia  non  not  only  of  every 
comfort,  but  of  all  the  active  duties  of  life.  For 
those  who  set  out  on  a  mad  pursuit  after  know- 
ledge, and  think  it  possible  to  improve  their 
understandings  while  they  neglect  their  health, 
soon  run  themselves  out  of  breath,  and  are 
stopped  in  the  midst  of  their  career,  when  a 
sober,  moderate  pace  might  have  carried  them 
securely  to  their  point. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  9 

Instead  of  wearying  herself,  however,  to 
acquire  perfect  health  which  was  not  in  her 
power,  she  was  thankful  for  the  amount  she 
enjoyed  ;  for  the  knowledge  of  what  positive 
health  meant,  she  was  content  to  wait  till  some 
future  state  of  being.  In  spite  of  an  untoward 
constitution  and  youthful  indiscretions,  she  was 
granted  what  she  called  the  '  tremendous  bless- 
ing '  of  long  life,  and  died  in  her  eighty-ninth 
year. 

She  was  always  an  early  riser,  and  one 
summer  that  she  was  compelled  to  pass  in  the 
care  of  her  health  and  the  utter  neglect  of  her 
intellect,  she  rode  or  walked  out  by  the  advice 
of  her  physician  between  four  and  five  o'clock 
every  morning. 

When  engaged  in  this  eager  and  somewhat 
violent  pursuit  of  health,  she  rambled  at  times 
to  the  top  of  a  hill  by  moonlight,  enjoying  a 
superiority  over  the  slumbering  world  with  a 
sense  of  dignity  in  finding  herself  awake.  After 
contemplating  the  still  beauties  of  the  land- 
scape in  the  soft  light  of  the  moon,  all  the 
spirit  and  glory  of  the  opening  day  enlivened 
her  walk  home,  as  the  sun  darted  its  full 
splendour  on  the  waves.  Dr.  Johnson,  one 
New  Year's  Day,  made  the  heroic  resolve  to 


lo  A    WOMAN    OF 

rise  in  future  about  eight.  In  this  he  per- 
severed until  the  following  March,  when  he 
said  that,  though  he  had  accomplished  but  little 
when  he  was  up,  he  had  obtained  for  so  many 
more  hours  the  '  consciousness  of  being.'  Some 
may  object  that  eight  o'clock  is  not  very  early  ; 
to  such  he  would  answer,  '  Why,  sir,  a  London 
morning  does  not  go  with  the  sun.'  Elizabeth 
Carter  found  something  inexpressibly  delightful 
in  an  autumn  morning,  when  the  elements 
seemed  to  be  reposing  after  they  had  finished 
their  work  of  distributing  the  blessings  of 
heaven  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth. 

When  debarred  from  the  delight  of  rambling 
alone  by  a  set  of  '  rakish  fellows  '  who  infested 
the  place,  she  chose  a  companion  of  Amazonian 
bravery  who  feared  nothing  but  apparitions 
and  frogs,  from  which  she  promised  to  secure 
her  if  she  on  her  part  would  undertake  to 
defend  her  from  May-bugs  and  men,  which 
she  most  dreaded  ;  so  by  the  strength  of  that 
alliance  they  both  proceeded  in  great  safety. 

Without  vanity,  Elizabeth  Carter  claimed 
to  be  one  of  the  best  walkers  in  England,  and 
her  fellow-travellers  followed  her  panting  and 
grumbling  at  a  considerable  distance,  climbing 
up  the  hill   '  Difficulty,'  till  at  length  they  sank 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  ii 

into  the  '  Slough  of  Despond.'  One  of  her 
sisters  declined  to  go  with  her  until  she  had 
learnt  to  fly,  and  another  of  her  followers  sent 
word  that  she  could  not  possibly  venture  any 
more,  as  her  last  walk  had  absolutely  dislocated 
all  her  bones. 

So  she  had  no  one  to  depend  on  but  her 
half-sister  Mary,  who  was  as  strong  as  a  little 
Welsh  horse,  and  trudged  after  her  with  great 
alacrity,  promising  never  to  forsake  her,  if  she 
should  walk  to  the  North  Pole.  Those  frightful 
insects  May-bugs,  which  so  greatly  molested 
her  walks  in  spring,  were  '  creatures  with  only 
one  head,  no  feathers,  but  two  wings,  a  good  deal 
less  than  a  crab,  and  not  at  all  like  it.'  This 
very  accurate  description  of  her  formidable 
enemies  was  at  least  as  clear,  she  maintained, 
as  many  she  had  met  with  in  books,  and  would 
enable  the  reader  to  form  a  very  perfect  idea 
of  these  insects,  that  devastate  the  flowery  fields 
of  Kent  like  the  Northern  army  in  Joel. 

Elizabeth  Carter  describes  the  manner  in 
which  she  continued  to  pass  her  days  at  Deal 
with  little  variety  for  nearly  a  century.  *  As 
you  desire  a  full  and  true  account  of  my  whole 
life  and  conversation,  it  is  necessary  in  the  first 
place  that  you  should  be  made  acquainted  with 


12  A    WOMAN    OF 

the  singular  contrivance  by  which  I  am  called 
in  the  morning.  There  is  a  bell  placed  at  the 
head  of  my  bed,  and  to  this  is  fastened  a  pack- 
thread and  a  piece  of  lead,  which,  when  I  am 
not  lulled  by  soft  zephyrs  through  the  broken 
pane,  is  conveyed  through  a  crevasse  of  my 
window  into  a  garden  below,  pertaining  to  the 
sexton,  who  gets  up  between  four  and  five  and 
pulls  the  said  packthread  with  as  much  heart 
and  good  will  as  if  he  were  ringing  my  knell. 
Some  evil-minded  people  have  most  wickedly 
threatened  to  cut  my  bell-rope,  which  would  be 
the  utter  undoing  of  me,  for  I  should  infallibly 
sleep  out  the  whole  summer.  And  now  I  am 
up,  you  may  inquire  "To  what  purpose?" 
I  sit  down  to  my  several  lessons,  as  regular  as 
a  schoolboy,  and  lay  in  a  stock  of  learning  to 
make  a  figure  with  at  breakfast.'  Boswell  re- 
lates that  when  the  sexton  failed  she  contrived 
that  her  chamber  light  should  at  a  certain  hour 
burn  a  string  to  which  a  heavy  weight  was 
suspended,  which  then  fell  *  with  a  strong, 
sudden  noise '  that  roused  her  from  her  sleep. 

'  My  general  practice  about  six,'  she  con- 
tinued, *  is  to  take  up  my  stick  and  walk, 
sometimes  alone,  and  at  others  with  a  com- 
panion whom   I   draw  out  half  asleep  and,  con- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  13 

sequently,  incapable  of  reflecting  on  the  danger 
of  such  an  undertaking  ;  however,  she  has  the 
extreme  consolation  of  grumbling  as  much  as 
she  pleases  without  the  least  interruption, 
which  she  does  with  such  a  variety  of  comical 
phrases,  that  I  generally  laugh  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  of  our  journey. 

*  Many  are  the  exercises  of  patience  she 
meets  with :  sometimes  half-roasted  upon  an 
open  common,  then  dragged  through  a  path  in 
the  middle  of  a  cornfield,  bathed  up  to  the  ears 
in  dew,  and  perhaps  forced  to  scratch  her  way 
through  bushes  never  before  frequented  by  any 
animal  but  birds. 

'  In  short,  towards  the  conclusion  of  our 
walk,  we  make  such  deplorable  ragged  figures, 
that  I  wonder  some  prudent  country  justice 
does  not  take  us  up  for  vagrants,  and  cramp 
our  rambling  genius  in  the  stocks  ;  an  appre- 
hension that  does  not  half  so  much  fright  me, 
as  when  some  civil  swains  pull  off  their  hats, 
and  I  hear  them  signify  to  one  another,  with  a 
note  of  admiration,  that  I  am  Parson  Carter's 
daughter.  I  had  rather  be  accosted  with  "  Good 
morrow,  sweetheart !  Are  you  walking  for  a 
wager  ? " 

'  When  I  have  made  myself  fit  to  appear 


14  A    WOMAN    OF 

among  human  creatures  we  go  to  breakfast, 
and  we  are  extremely  chatty ;  this  and  tea  in 
the  afternoon  are  the  most  sociable  parts  of  the 
day. 

*  We  have  a  great  variety  of  topics,  but 
whenever  we  get  beyond  Latin  and  French  my 
sister  and  the  rest  walk  off,  and  leave  my  father 
and  me  to  finish  the  discourse  and  the  tea- 
kettle by  ourselves,  which  we  should  infallibly 
do  if  it  held  as  much  as  Solomon's  molten  sea.' 

Their  discourse,  like  their  correspondence, 
was  probably  often  carried  on  in  Latin.  Many 
of  their  letters  are  dated  '  Anno  Mundi '  instead 
of  '  Anno  Domini,'  on  the  basis  of  the  Julian 
chronology.  A  Xenophon  of  Elizabeth's,  now 
in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Brudenell  Carter,  is 
dated  in  her  handwriting  '  6449.' 

'After  breakfast,'  she  continued,  '  my  first 
care  is  to  water  the  pinks  and  roses,  and  when 
this  task  is  finished  I  sit  down  to  a  spinnet, 
which  in  its  best  state  might  have  cost  about 
fifteen  shillings,  with  as  much  importance  as  if  I 
knew  how  to  play.  After  deafening  myself  for 
about  half  an  hour  with  all  manner  of  noises, 
I  proceed  to  some  other  amusement,  and  thus 
between  reading,  working,  writing,  twirling  the 
globes,  and  running  up  and  down  stairs  to  see 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  15 

where  everybody  is  and  how  they  do,  I  seldom 
want  either  business  or  entertainment. 

*  It  is  the  fashion  here  for  people  to  make 
such  unreasonable  long  visits  that  before  they 
are  half  over  I  grow  so  restless  and  corky  that 
I  am  ready  to  fly  out  of  the  window.  About 
eight  I  visit  a  very  agreeable  family,  but  always 
return  precisely  at  ten,  beyond  which  hour  I 
do  not  desire  to  see  the  face  of  any  living 
wight,  and  thus  I  finish  my  day  and  this  tedious 
description.' 

To  a  friend  who  did  not  share  her  taste 
for  early  rising  she  wrote  the  following 
verses  : 

'  Of  the  many  queer  trifles  my  brains  often  hatch, 
I've  enclosed  you  a  paper  to  put  in  your  watch  ; 
'Tis  designed  from  a  true  equinoctial  projection, 
Tho'  belike  'tis  not  done  to  the  greatest  perfection ; 
But  'twill  show  you  (with  many  more  curious  devices) 
When  the  sun  goes  to  bed,  and  eke  when  he  rises. 
A  thing  of  prodigious  importance,  you'll  say. 
To  folks  who  ne'er  see  him  except  at  mid-day. 
Now  I  wonder,  dear  Hetty,  a  person  of  reason 
Should  not  choose  to  enjoy  each  good  thing  in  its  season  ; 
And  believe  me,  who  commonly  rise  pretty  soon, 
There  are  many  fine  shows  to  be  seen  before  noon. 
The  poets  will  tell  you  a  deal  of  Aurora, 
And  how  much  she  improves  all  the  beauties  of  Flora 
Tho'  you  need  believe  neither  the  poets  nor  me, 
But  convince  your  own  senses,  and  get  up  and  see. 


i6  A    WOMAN    OF 

I've  considered  your  doubts  of  the  ways  and  means  how, 
And  will  give  you  the  very  best  council  I  know  : 
Even  purchase  a  'larum  as  loud  as  e'er  squall'd, 
And  set  but  your  hour,  and  you're  sure  to  be  called.' 

Elizabeth  Carter  thus  describes  her  accom- 
phshments  : — '  My  present  reigning  scheme  is 
music.  Having  for  some  time  past  made  a 
composition  of  noises  between  the  hissing  of  a 
snake  and  the  lowing  of  a  cow  upon  a  German 
flute,  I  am  now  set  down  to  the  spinnet,  which 
unfortunately  stood  in  my  way,  and  before  I 
can  play  three  bars  in  any  one  tune,  am  trying 
at  a  dozen.  I  content  myself  with  thinking  it 
is  a  superficial  world  one  lives  in,  and  super- 
ficial understandings  suit  it  best,  so  vive  la 
bagatelle,   I'll  e'en  trifle  on  and  be  content.' 

Though  these  spasmodic  efforts  to  make 
music  failed,  throughout  life  she  loved  the  art, 
and  enjoyed  the  works  of  Handel  and  Corelli 
beyond  all  others.  *  Mr.'  Handel's  'powerful 
magic '  recalled  to  her  thoughts  fine  passages 
from  her  favourite  authors,  striking  conversa- 
tions, and  the  memory  of  those  she  loved. 
'  Though  he  deserved  to  be  maintained,'  she 
doubted  how  long  his  oratorios,  once  so 
crowded,  might  be  fashionable,  for  he  played 
to  empty  walls  in  the  opera  house.     It  pained 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  17 

her  to  notice  amongst  the  most  constant  fre- 
quenters of  his  oratorios  '  profligate  poor 
wretches,  who  Hved  inharmonious  and  disor- 
derly lives,' and  she  lamented  to  see  'a  passion- 
ate love  of  music  and  the  fine  arts  often  united 
with  a  dissipated  head  and  wicked  heart.' 
/^  However,  it  was  more  fashionable  to  run 
mad  about  Mr.  Thomson's  play  '  Tancred  and 
Sigismunda,'  to  the  success  of  which  tragedy 
the  acting  of  David  Garrick  and  Mrs.  Gibber 
no  doubt  contributed.  It  was  written  in  1748, 
the  year  of  his  death,  by  James  Thomson, 
author  of  'The  Seasons,'  the  Roxburghshire 
poet,  who  was  born  at  Ednam  in  1700. 

Of  painting  she  wrote  :  '  I  have  lately 
taken  great  pains  to  acquire  some  litde  notion 
of  this  delightful  art ;  but  with  such  wretched 
success,  that  I  begin  to  lose  courage.  I  never 
had  any  instruction  but  from  books  as  unintel- 
ligible to  me  as  if  they  were  written  in  the 
Calmuck  language  ;  I  have  nothing  to  assist  me 
but  industry  ;  genius  I  have  none,  and  I  want 
mightily  to  know  whether  one  can  make  any 
progress  without  it.' 

She  wrote  to  a  friend  :  '  Pray  can  you 
knit  ?  I  have  just  taken  it  into  my  head 
to  learn  ;  I  have    taken   incredible  pains,  and 

c 


i8  A    WOMAN    OF 

observed  as  profound  a  silence  as  if  I  had 
entered  myself  a  disciple  in  the  school  of 
Pythagoras,  to  the  great  offence  of  Mrs. 
Underdown,  who  insists  that  knitters  are  as  bad 
company  as  smokers,  and  observing  that  I 
felt  somewhat  vain  of  my  proficiency  in  finish- 
ing a  round  in  somewhat  less  than  an  hour,"has 
endeavoured  to  mortify  my  vanity  by  telling 
me  that,  notwithstanding  all  my  efforts,  I  am 
blundering  at  an  art  in  which  I  shall  be  excelled 
by  every  goody  in  the  parish.' 

To    Elizabeth    Carter's    active    mind    the 
monotonous    drudgery     of    learning    to    knit 
appeared  likely  to  qualify  her  for  that  earliest 
of  philosophical   schools,    '  which  was    one  of 
moral  abstinence  and  purification.'    Pythagoras, 
the    founder,    attached    great    importance    to 
mathematical  studies,  and  while  counting  her 
stitches,  she,  too,  probably  found  that  numbers 
are  the  principles  of  all  things ;  she  hoped,   no 
doubt,  that  her  work  would  eventually  become 
like  the  universe  according  to  the  doctrines  of 
Pythagoras,    a   harmonious   whole   (Kosmos), 
though  the   object   attained    after   finishing  a 
round  in  somewhat   less  than  an  hour  might 
appear,  like  the  ultimate  aim  of  his  philosophi- 
cal school,  to  be  wrapped  in  mystery. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  19 

The  traditional  gypsy  woman  has  always 
been  represented  with  a  pipe  in  her  mouth,  but 
of  smoking  amongst  educated  English  women 
of  the  eighteenth  century  there  does  not  appear 
to  be  any  record,  although  they  were  not  averse 
to  a  pinch  of  snuff.  Had  Dr.  Johnson  fore- 
seen the  present  necessity  of  a  cigarette  to 
soothe  the  overwrought  feminine  nerves,  he 
would  not  have  so  hastily  condemned  knitting 
as  the  nearest  approach  to  idleness.  John 
Bright  used  to  testify  from  his  own  experience 
to  the  calming  power  of  this  mechanical  work, 
to  which  he  had  recourse  when  harassed  with 
the  affairs  of  the  State,  and  which  to  the 
habitual  knitter  requires  no  effort  of  the  brain. 

Elizabeth  Carter  had  also  been  greatly  en- 
gaged in  the  '  important  affair  of  working  a 
pair  of  ruffles  '  and  handkerchief,  and  though 
her  friends  highly  applauded  such  laudable 
imitation  of  the  quiet  domestic  virtues  of  our 
great-grandmothers  as  working  in  muslin  and 
lawn,  they  thought  it  would  be  an  unpardon- 
able sacrifice  in  those  capable  of  employing 
their  eyes  so  much  better. 

Recognising  his  daughter's  unusual  abilities, 
the  worthy  and  learned  Dr.  Carter  desired  her 

to  qualify  herself  by  the  study  of  German  for 

c  2 


20  A    WOMAN    OF 

a  place  about  the  Court.  Though  the  narrow 
circle  which  bounds  the  views  of  a  mere  cour- 
tier would  have  been  very  uncongenial,  her  pen 
would  probably  have  produced  pictures  of  the 
household  of  the  Princess  of  Wales  (mother  of 
George  1 1 1.)  as  vivid  as  those  in  Fanny  Burney's 
Diary,  which  have  made  good  King  George  and 
his  worthy  Queen  real  and  living  persons  for  us. 

She  might  also  have  influenced  that  un- 
happy Princess  Caroline  Matilda,  afterwards 
Oueen  of  Denmark,  who  wanted  nothing  but  a 
blameless  life  to  have  been  accounted  one  of 
the  noble  army  of  martyrs.  The  King  of  Den- 
mark thus  excused  his  cruel  conduct  to  his  wife. 
He  wrote  to  George  III.  that  his  sister  had 
behaved  in  a  manner  that  had  obliged  him  to 
imprison  her,  but  that  from  regard  for  his 
Majesty  her  life  should  be  safe. 

Elizabeth  Carter  had  heard  with  sympathetic 
interest  how  this  poor  child,  as  she  then  was, 
had  gone  out  alone  into  the  wide  world,  not  a 
creature  that  she  knew  attending  her  farther 
than  Altona.  It  was  worse  than  dying,  for  it 
was  dying  out  of  one  bad  world  into  another, 
where  she  would  have  cares,  and  fears,  and 
dangers,  and  sorrows  that  were  yet  all  new 
to  her. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  21 

Contented  as  Elizabeth  Carter  was  with  her 
manner  of  life,  other  people  did  not  seem  to 
think  it  a  life  to  be  contented  with.  A  good  old 
gentleman  had  proposed  a  variety  of  schemes, 
which,  though  they  might  be  very  advantageous, 
presented  no  attractions  to  her.  To  give  up 
one's  ease  and  liberty,  and  to  be  under  perpetual 
restraint  for  the  sake  of  wearing  a  finer  gown, 
eating  a  greater  variety  of  dishes,  and  seeing 
more  company  and  fewer  friends,  appeared  to 
her  a  very  strange  scheme  ;  and  moreover, 
unless  it  were  to  instruct  the  young  Princesses 
in  Latin  and  Greek,  which  since  the  days  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  and  Lady  Jane  Grey  had 
never  been  thought  of,  she  could  not  imagine 
for  what  important  function  she  was  designed. 

The  night  before  receiving  a  letter  suggest- 
ing her  appointment  to  a  post  in  the  Princess 
of  Wales's  household,  she  dreamed  that  for  the 
greater  convenience  of  curling  her  hair  she  had 
cut  off  her  head  :  which  she  considered  marvel- 
lously applicable — for  what  was  going  to  Court 
but  setting  one's  cap  handsomely  at  the  ex- 
pense of  losing  one's  head  ? 

Few  people  were  more  attentive  to  the 
subject  of  Court  Intelligence  than  Elizabeth 
Carter ;    for  those  engaged  in  the  bustle  and 


22  A    WOMAN    OF 

shifting  scenes  of  Court  life  have  very  little 
leisure  to  attend  to  the  spectacle  from  which 
quiet  observers,  who  content  themselves  with 
seeing  the  drama  without  any  wish  for  the 
pleasures  and  tinsel,  and  the  long  trains  of 
the  actors,  derive  so  much  amusement.  She 
willingly  adopted  the  following  advice  from  her 
father  :  '  Preserve  the  character  of  an  inoffen- 
sive and  prudent  woman,  take  extreme  caution 
concerning  the  company  you  keep,  be  civil 
to  all,  not  too  intimate  with  any,  and  very 
reserved  with  some,  and  your  extraordinary 
qualifications  will  in  time  produce  something 
desirable.' 

Like  Maria  Edgeworth,  who  cheerfully  wel- 
comed a  perpetual  succession  of  stepmothers, 
Elizabeth  Carter  lived  on  very  happy  terms 
with  her  father's  second  wife,  a  woman  of  good 
heart  and  useful  life,  whose  devotion  to  her 
husband  was  not  of  that  narrow  and  selfish 
kind  that  seeks  to  alienate  a  man  from  his  own 
children.  She  was  one  with  him  in  the  loyal 
discharge  of  his  duty  to  those  who  had  a  prior 
claim.  She  was  not  a  woman  of  strong  nerve. 
An  unexpected  offer  of  marriage  for  her  step- 
daughter Elizabeth  '  quite  scared  her,'  and 
when  it  was  rumoured  that  the    French  fleet 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  2^ 


o 


was  about  to  land  12,000  troops  at  Deal,  she 
'  gaped,'  whilst  her  husband  merely  looked  pro- 
found. Fear  equally  revealed  the  characters  of 
the  servants.  Polly  secured  her  money,  and 
Betty  wrung  her  hands,  lifted  up  her  eyes  and 
roared  most  wonderfully.  At  the  time  of  this 
ofood  woman's  death,  Elizabeth  Carter  wrote  : 
*A  few  hours  after  my  arrival  at  Lambeth  I 
received  the  sad  news  of  the  death  of  my 
mother ;  she  was  no  otherwise  related  to  me 
than  by  marrying  my  father,  but  her  uncommon 
care  of  his  family  rendered  her  a  most  valuable 
blessing  to  us  all.  After  her  laborious  cares, 
I  hoped  she  would  have  enjoyed  relaxation  and 
ease,  and  that  by  my  attentions  I  should  con- 
tribute to  her  happiness.  How  shall  I  miss 
her  kind  indulgence,  her  tender  concern  for  my 
health,  her  constant  watchful  care  of  me,  and 
the  particular  assistance  she  was  always  ready 
to  give  ! ' 

Dr.  Johnson  marvelled  when  he  heard 
that  Hannah  More  and  her  four  sisters  lived 
happily  together  ;  but  they  kept  a  school — five 
unemployed  women  living  harmoniously  in  one 
house  might  have  aroused  his  incredulity. 

Be  it  remembered  to  the  credit  of  '  blue- 
stockings,' often    exposed   to    ridicule    by   the 


24  A    WOMAN    OF 

uncouth  appearance  of  those  who  cultivate  their 
minds,  that  two  such  distinguished  literary 
women  as  Elizabeth  Carter  and  Maria  Edge- 
worth  shone  conspicuously  in  their  home  duties 
and  the  complication  of  step-relationships. 

Elizabeth  Carter  entirely  undertook  the 
education  of  her  half-brother  Henry  (who  was 
twenty-one  years  her  junior),  from  whom  she 
was  inseparable.  A  friend  wrote  to  her  :  '  Do 
not  get  into  such  idle  Mama- panics  about  "  your 
son  Henry,"  because  panics  are  endless,  and 
make  reasonable  people  silly,  and  happy  people 
miserable.' 

Much  contrivance  was  necessary  to  find 
employment  for  this  lively  boy;  'he  skipped, 
danced,  and  played  all  manner  of  monkey 
tricks,'  which  she  never  checked,  but  racked 
her  brain  to  amuse  him,  allowing  him  the  use 
of  every  picture  book  in  her  cupboard,  and 
permission  to  stun  her  head  by  playing  with 
his  tops  and  whips  in  her  chamber ;  but  of  all 
this  he  soon  tired.  At  length,  anticipating  the 
'  kindergarten  '  scheme  of  after  generations, 
she  hit  upon  a  lucky  expedient  by  setting  him 
to  draw  perpendiculars  and  triangles.  A  scale 
and  compasses  kept  him  as  quiet  and  as  well 
pleased  as  heart  could  wish. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  25 

She  considered  it  her  duty  to  contribute  to 
the  cheerfuhiess  of  her  family  society,  and  said 
if  people  would  recollect  what  they  do  not  suffer 
it  would  alleviate  the  sense  of  what  they  do. 

*  My  nerves,'  she  wrote,  '  are  in  a  wretched 
state  and  my  spirits  fluttering  and  low.  Very 
well,  but  I  am  not  blind,  nor  in  prison,  nor  among 
heathen,  nor  betrayed  by  friends.  As  it  is  a 
duty  to  feel  for  the  sorrows  of  all,  so  it  is 
equally  one  to  enjoy  with  cheerful  thankfulness 
one's  own  blessings.'  She  had  learned  from 
Epictetus  that  '  If  man  is  unhappy,  hisunhappi- 
ness  is  his  own  fault,  for  God  has  made  all  men 
to  be  happy  and  free  from  perturbations.  We 
sit  trembling  for  fear  that  something  will 
happen,  and  weeping,  lamenting,  and  groaning 
for  what  does  happen,  and  yet  God,  like  a  true 
Father,  has  given  us  faculties  to  bear  with 
greatness  of  soul  and  manliness  everything  that 
happens  without  being  depressed  or  broken 
by  it.' 

She  had  nevertheless  her  seasons  of  de- 
pression.    In  1745  she  wrote  to  a  friend  : 

*  Such  is  the  present  state  of  things  I  must 
visit  you  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  as  the  habit 
best  suited  to  the  now  disposition  of  my  mind. 
Indeed  one    would    not    imagine    it    from    the 


26  A    WOMAN    OF 

lively  colours  in  which  I  appear  to  everybody 
else.  To  look  gay  when  one  is  really  unhappy 
is  a  duty  society  has  a  right  to  demand,  but  I 
have  a  higher  opinion  of  you  than  of  anybody 
else,  therefore  choose  to  appear  before  you 
without  disguise. 

*  I  do  not  know  I  was  ever  so  perfectly  out 
of  humour  with  the  world,  and  all  in  it,  as  I  am 
at  present,  a  very  unpleasant  reverse  of  my 
usual  error  in  liking  it  perhaps  better  than  it 
deserves.  Everything  now  looks  joyless  and 
uncomfortable.  There  is  neither  light  in  the 
sun  nor  verdure  In  the  fields,  nor  cheerfulness 
In  any  human  face.  I  am  sick  of  people  of 
sense  because  they  can  act  like  fools,  and  of 
fools  because  they  cannot  talk  like  people  of 
sense,  and  of  myself  for  being  so  absurd  as 
to  trouble  my  head  about  them.  There  is  a 
strange  kind  of  magic  in  some  circumstances 
that  can  thus  alter  the  whole  face  of  things.  A 
little  while  ago  I  was  mightily  disposed  to  be 
pleased  with  all  I  met  with,  and  now  I  am 
pleased  with  nothing. 

*  'Tis  surely  a  fatal  error  to  give  oneself  up 
to  certain  enchantments  that  lead  the  mind  into 
fairy  regions  of  dreams  and  shadows,  where  It 
Is  amused  and   fixed   on    Imaginary  forms  of 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  27 

happiness  and  perfection,  which  vanish  with 
the  fickle  cause  that  gave  them  being,  and 
one  is  left  in  the  midst  of  a  wild,  perplexed 
solitude,  astonished  and  utterly  at  a  loss  what 
road  to  take  or  where  to  meet  with  any  object 
to  divert  it.  What  a  figure  I  must  appear  to  you ! 
I  am  ashamed  but  not  sorry,  as  it  begins  to  do 
me  a  great  deal  of  good  ;  the  picture  I  have 
been  drawing  of  myself  is  so  deformed  that  it 
quite  shocks  me.  Surely  conversing  with  you 
has  a  wonderful  power  of  harmonising  my 
thoughts,  for  I  find  myself  getting  into  good 
temper  apace — Me  void  done  passab lenient  gai, 
le  inonde  se  repeuple  et  tout  va  asses  bien.  I'll 
e'en  put  on  my  Venetian  cap,  stick  a  great 
sunflower  in  my  bosom,  look  very  fine,  laugh, 
and  be  as  well  pleased  with  people  and  things 
as  I  used  to  be.' 

Elizabeth  Carter's  advice  to  whoever  will 
apply  it  to  herself : 

'  Madam, — Are  you  young  ?  Then  be  wise 
and  be  a  wonder.  Are  you  old }  Be  cheer- 
fully prudent  and  decently  agreeable ;  as  for 
your  opinions,  be  consistent  in  all  and  obstinate 
in  none,  and  rejoice  that  you  are  got  so  far  in 
safety  through  a  dangerous  world,  Are  you 
naturally  gay  ?     Why,  then,   never  go  out  of 


28  A    WOMAN    OF 

your  way  to  seek  for  pleasure,  and  you  will 
constantly  enjoy  it.  Are  you  serious  ?  Re- 
member that  not  to  be  happy  is  not  to  be 
grateful.  Are  you  melancholy  ?  Beware  of 
romance.     Are  you  handsome  ?    Be  unaffected, 

and  charm,  like  Lady  C .     Are  you  plain  ? 

Be  easy,  and  outshine  all  beauty.  Are  you  rich  ? 
Make  use  of  your  fortune  with  a  generous 
economy ;  beware  equally  of  trifling  and  in- 
dolence ;  keep  your  money  out  of  a  purse  and 
a  toy  shop ;  make  other  people  happy  and 
yourself  considerable.  Do  you  want  employ- 
ment ?  Choose  it  well  before  you  begin,  and 
then  pursue  it.  Do  you  want  amusement  ? 
Take  the  first  you  meet  with  that  is  harmless, 
and  never  be  attached  to  any.  Are  you  in  a 
moderate  station  ?  Be  content,  though  not 
affectedly  so ;  be  philosophical,  but  for  the 
most  part  keep  your  thoughts  to  yourself.  Are 
you  sleepy  ?     Go  to  bed.' 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  29 


CHAPTER    II 

DEAL 

The  spot  on  earth  where  one  dwells  may  be 
nothing  or  may  be  a  great  deal.  EHzabeth 
Carter  thought  her  abode  the  most  charming 
she  had  ever  seen.  The  stormy  ocean,  hang- 
ing ch'ffs,  and  rocky  shore  formed  a  fine 
contrast  to  the  '  cultivated,  sociable,  and  good- 
humoured  country  '  that  lay  between  Deal  and 
Canterbury.  From  the  gentle  beauties  of  the 
landscape  the  mind  turned  to  the  vast,  wild, 
awful  works  created  by  the  Almighty  hand,  and 
untouched  by  human  littleness.  '  Man,'  said 
Epictetus,  '  is  a  witness  summoned  by  God  not 
only  to  be  a  spectator,  but  an  interpreter  of 
His  works,  and  he  bids  us  to  take  care  not  to 
die  without  havino-  seen  them.' 

'  What  have  I  done  to  you,  and  what  has 
poor  Kent  done  to  you,'  wrote  Elizabeth  Carter, 
'  that    in    your    direction  you    stick    us    in  the 


30  A    WOMAN    OF 

mire  of  Sussex,  when  we  are  in  reality  so 
happy  as  to  be  placed  on  the  coast  of 
Kent?' 

There  summer  might  be  seen  in  all  its 
charms,  the  sun  shining  bright  and  warm  by 
day,  and  the  moon  shedding  a  soft  light  and 
cool  freshness  over  the  evening,  so  that  the 
fields  did  'laugh  and  sing.'  Yet  very  fine 
weather  was  so  transitory  a  good  in  that  un- 
certain sky  that  Mrs.  Carter  found  there  was 
no  great  hope  that  it  would  wait  till  she  had 
more  leisure  to  attend  to  it. 

On  the  1st  of  June  poor  mortals  on  the 
Kentish  coast  might  be  petrified  with  cold 
winds,  or  on  Midsummer  Day  alternately 
scorched  and  frozen  by  a  hot  sun  and  cold 
north-east  wind ;  but  in  all  weathers  she  had 
the  resolution  to  ramble  in  the  fields,  although 
she  had  rather  be  loitering  over  a  book,  from 
a  conviction  that  any  kind  of  weather  is  more 
wholesome  than  too  much  Greek.  Whenever 
she  tired  of  reading,  her  garden  amused  and 
occupied  her,  even  when  the  effects  of  a  long 
succession  of  north-east  winds  were  shown  in 
the  shabby,  drooping  appearance  of  her  flowers. 
Watering  and  planting  were  her  great  resource. 
Elizabeth  Carter  loved  her  birthplace,  as  the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  31 

'  frozen  Russian  prefers  his  interminable  wastes 
of  snow  to  the  citron  groves  and  spicy  fragrance 
of  Arabia.'  During  nearly  a  century  Deal  was 
her  home,  though  the  v/inter  storms  made  fear- 
ful havoc  of  her  aching  head.  She  could  not 
put  her  nose  out  of  doors  without  securing  her 
cap  and  bonnet  in  a  '  very  powerful  manner ' 
with  the  largest  pins  she  could  find  to  avoid 
the  awkward  distress  of  having  them  blown  to 
the  Goodwin  Sands. 

From  her  window,  which  looked  towards 
the  North  Foreland,  she  enjoyed  a  view  of  the 
sea  of  which  she  never  wearied.  Every  hour 
it  wore  some  new  appearance.  Sometimes  a 
dark  cloud,  illuminated  by  a  rainbow,  over- 
shadowed part  of  the  ocean,  while  over  the 
other  the  setting  sun  was  shining  on  the  sails 
of  the  ships,  forming  a  variety  of  the  most 
sublime  and  inconceivable  beauty.  At  one 
moment  it  displayed  all  the  grandeur  of  a 
storm,  the  waves  of  the  Goodwin  Sands  dash- 
ing against  the  clouds,  or  when  the  storm  had 
spent  its  fury  from  all  points  of  the  compass  it 
would  settle  into  a  calm.  The  Greeks  had  an 
epithet  for  the  sea,  which  interpreters  translate 
unfruitful,  because,  say  they,  the  sea  does  not 
produce  any  vineyards.     Now  the  same  word, 


32  A    WOMAN    OF 

Elizabeth  Carter  declared,  by  another  deriva- 
tion signifies  '  unwearied,'  and   '  indefatigable, 
and  forms  an   epithet  of  the  highest  propriety 
and  beauty. 

Sometimes  she  would  take  solitary  moon- 
light walks  on  the  beach,  indulging  her  melan- 
choly thoughts  by  a  view  of  the  ocean  that 
had  separated  her  from  a  favourite  brother,  a 
lieutenant  in  the  Navy,  who  died  on  foreign 
service ;  at  others,  she  would  sit  on  the  shore 
surveying  the  dashing  waves,  or  in  her  airy 
little  room,  listening  to  the  howling  wind, 
beating  rain,  and  roaring  billows.  Fond  as  she 
was  of  the  sea,  her  house  was  too  much  like 
the  Eddystone,  and  her  rooms  (which  were 
smaller  than  she  could  wish)  were  in  every- 
thing but  motion  absolute  cabins.  But,  then,  it 
was  in  such  a  situation  that  even  her  intem- 
perate love  of  air  had  enough  to  content  it. 
She  always  called  it  the  '  Vinegar  Bottle,'  pro- 
bably alluding  to  its  shape.  She  considered  a 
high  hill,  where  one  is  solidly  fixed  and  sur- 
rounded by  the  free  air  of  heaven,  a  good 
station ;  but  to  be  suspended  between  earth 
and  sky,  and  enclosed  in  walls  of  brick  and 
stone,  as  in  the  '  flatts '  in  Edinburgh,  was  a 
most  fearful  s^jour ;  it  reminded  her  of  the  '  old 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  33 

woman  who  was  drawn  up  in  a  basket  three  or 
four  leagues  as  high  as  the  moon.' 

Mrs.  Montagu  gladly  left  the  magnificence 
of  her  palace  in  Portman  Square  and  the 
Gothic  beauties  of  Sandleford,  and  Mrs.  Vesey 
deserted  her  blue  room  in  Bolton  Street  or 
her  Irish  home  full  of  mortal  comforts  and  con- 
veniences, to  visit  their  friend  in  her  '  Vinegar 
Bottle.'  Mrs.  Carter's  only  attendants  were 
two  damsels,  who  on  one  occasion  during  her 
absence  had  behaved  so  wickedly  that  she 
endeavoured  to  replace  them  by  two  others, 
who  knew  no  earthly  thing  save  how  to  speak 
the  truth  and  do  as  they  were  bid.  One  such 
prize  she  quickly  found,  and  when  another 
equally  ignorant  was  secured,  she  was  con- 
stantly employed,  first  in  teaching  herself,  and 
next  in  teaching  them  the  art  and  mystery  of 
their  business  ;  for  they,  poor  souls,  would  have 
run  their  noses  against  every  door  in  that  in- 
tricate little  tenement  without  knowing  whither 
it  would  lead,  if  she  had  not  served  them  as 
guide.  Whether  they  would  get  acquainted 
with  the  odd  ways  of  their  mistress  she  could 
not  tell,  but  she  was  not  discouraged  by  any 
former  want  of  success  ;  for  trial  is  always  a 
duty,  and  with  success  she  had  nothing  to  do. 

D 


34  A    WOMAN    OF 

Locks  and  bolts  she  always  looked  upon  as  the 
most  severe  satire  upon  mankind.  Elizabeth 
Carter  was  not  amongst  those  who 

'  Prepare  a  home  from  which  to  run  away.' 

To  the  indolence  of  her  temper  a  journey 
of  sixteen  miles  seemed  as  formidable  as  a 
voyage  to  *  Grand  Cairo,'  and  that  distance 
placed  her  friends  as  completely  out  of  her 
reach  as  if  they  were  perched  on  the  farthest 
point  of  the  Orkneys.  With  the  coaches  and 
chariots  of  this  world  she  had  nothing  to  do, 
and  her  knowledge  of  riding  was  so  slight 
that  she  would  as  soon  think  of  flying  through 
the  air  on  the  back  of  a  hippogriff  (the 
winged  horse  of  Ariosto).  She  told  a  cala- 
mitous story  of  how  she  had  ridden  out  one 
evening  to  take  the  air  with  a  friend,  when  her 
friend's  horse  started  and  threw  her.  '  But  as 
the  creature  happened  to  have  no  legs  it  was 
pretty  near  the  ground,  and  she  received  little 
damage  except  the  breaking  of  a  little  glass 
bottle  in  her  pocket,  which  she  feared  might 
put  out  her  eyes.'  In  1744  she  described  her- 
self as  having  become  so  extremely  plodding 
and  stupid,  that  she  feared  all  her  gay,  whim- 
sical ideas  would  dwindle  into  a  sober  relish  for 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  35 

a  comfortable  life,  and  instead  of  soaring  in  the 
air  as  volatile  as  a  skylark,  she  expected  to  be 
soon  reduced  to  waddling  upon  earth  like  a  fat 
goose.  In  the  spring  the  usual  flight  of  Kentish 
people  to  London  depopulated  the  county,  and 
when  her  own  wings  were  clipped,  she  found 
it  melancholy  to  sit  listening  to  the  roaring 
of  the  waves  and  the  horrible  howling  of  the 
north-east  wind.  But  she  was  well  adapted 
for  solitude,  for  she  possessed  a  genius  for 
'  castle  building  '  that  would  have  afforded  her 
many  happy  hours  if  she  had  been  banished 
to  the  Orcades. 

Her  situation  at  this  period  resembled  that 
of  poor  Hero  ;  and,  warned  by  her  fate,  a 
friend  wrote  :  '  Do  not  expect  a  Leander  from 
the  opposite  coast,  but  rather  return  to  London, 
and  when  he  is  found  may  he  be  equally 
faithful  and  more  happy.' 

Her  friends  at  Deal  knew  nothinof  of  the 
larger  world  in  which  Elizabeth  Carter  shone 
as  a  prominent  member  of  the  most  exclusive 
literary  society  ;  they  were  indifferent  to  every- 
thing outside  their  own  narrow  circle,  and  could 
only  imagine  her  as  taking  part  in  their  local 
society,  and  joining  their  parties  of  whist  and 

quadrille.    As  no  one  there  thought  either  better 

D  2 


36  A    WOMAN    OF 

or  worse  of  her  for  her  attainments,  she  contrived 
to  live  happily  without  '  spirit,  taste,  or  senti- 
ment,' or  a  hundred  other  fine  things  which  her 
blue-stocking  friends  in  town  reckoned  among 
the  necessaries  of  life. 

When  engaged  for  the  afternoon  with  a 
party  of  '  vociferous  fat  gentlewomen  '  at  fancy 
quadrille,  she  could  with  great  tranquillity 
make  tea  for  them,  and  quietly  withdraw  her 
thoughts  to  a  more  amusing  entertainment 
than  their  comments  on  the  black  aces,  voles, 
sanprendres,  &c.,  &c.  She  had  enough  com- 
mon sense  to  keep  in  good  humour  through  the 
daily  round,  and  to  prevent  her  from  running 
the  needle  into  her  fingers  when  she  was  at 
work.  She  found  the  good  men  and  women 
with  whom  she  was  associated  as  unentertain- 
ing  as  dormice,  yet  as  they  bore  the  figure  of 
human  creatures,  and  might  be,  for  aught  she 
knew,  of  more  use  in  society  than  herself,  she 
did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  shock  their  ideas  of 
good  manners  by  drawing  a  book  out  of  her 
pocket.  She  comforted  herself  with  the  thought 
that  they  would  soon  betake  themselves  to 
their  black  aces,  and  though  she  might  be 
stifled  with  the  heat,  she  would  not  be  oblioed 
to  talk.     Of  all    the  teasing  exercises  of  the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  37 

spirits,  she  found  few  so  wearying  as  that  of 
mere  mechanical,  uninteresting  talking,  unless 
looked  upon  as  a  wholesome  mortification. 
She  had  a  '  laudable  affection  for  conversation,' 
but  mortally  hated  talking.  A  long  walk  was 
required  to  give  her  spirit  to  pay  a  visit  to  two 
or  three  of  the  Deal  'misses/  'Oh,  dear!  oh, 
dear  ! '  she  would  cry,  '  how  can  I  contrive  to 
make  talk  ? '  The  gossip  in  a  country  town 
like  Deal  made  novel-reading  unnecessary,  for 
the  scandal  gleaned  from  a  few  of  these  visits 
supplied  all  the  plots  of  the  ordinary  novel, 
with  the  advantage  of  freshness  and  origi- 
nality. She  consoled  herself  with  the  reflec- 
tion that  perpetual  intellectual  pleasures  might 
in  our  present  imperfect  state  withdraw 
us  from  our  duties,  and  weaken  our  human 
sympathies.  Neither  her  intellectual  powers 
nor  futile  efforts  to  make  small  talk  were 
always  required  to  enliven  these  ceremonies, 
for  with  a  very  aching  head  she  paid  a  visit 
where  her  hostess  talked  very  loud,  the  parrot 
screamed,  the  lap-dog  barked,  the  child  cried, 
and  the  maid,  to  quiet  all  this  tintamar^^e 
blew  a  horn. 

The  less  pretentious  of  her  townsfolk  were 
quicker   to    recognise   her    talents,    and    were 

2112S0 


38  A    WOMAN    OF 

proud  of  the  distinction  they  reflected  on  their 
locality. 

'Why,  Punch,'  said  the  showman  of  a  pup- 
pet-show at  Deal,  '  what  makes  you  so  stupid  ? ' 

*  I  can't  talk  my  own  talk,'  answered  Punch  ; 
'the  famous  Miss  Carter  is  here.' 

The  inhabitants  of  Deal  were  amply  satis- 
fied with  all  that  pertained  to  themselves  ;  they 
had  an  excellent  set  of  actors,  that  wanted  very 
few  qualifications  but  washing  their  faces  and 
learning  to  read  ;  and  as  to  the  choir  of  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  Mrs.  Carter  exclaimed  :  '  We 
have  such  a  very  fine  psalm  singing  here  at 
present,  that  we  would  hardly  condescend  to 
listen  to  any  music  but  our  own.' 

Occasionally  foreign  talent  was  exhibited. 
Monsieur  Blanchard  fixed  on  a  spot  on  the 
South  Foreland,  whence  he  proposed  to  begin 
a  flight  to  Calais  in  his  balloon.  This  attempt 
Mrs.  Carter  viewed  with  great  distrust,  for  she 
supposed  that  the  principles  upon  which  a  post- 
chaise  moves  upon  earth  are  equally  secure, 
and  yet  some  chance  might  overturn  it,  and 
*  non  deplaise  a  Monsieur  Blanchard,  a  tumble 
from  the  clouds  is  rather  more  formidable  than 
the  breaking  of  a  wheel  or  an  axle  on  a  turn- 
pike road.' 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  39 

The  '  Gentleman's  Magazine  '  gives  a  '  parti- 
cular account  of  a  voyage  in  a  grand  balloon,  in 
the  atmosphere,  from  Dover  Castle  to  France, 
by  those  skilful  and  enterprising  philosophers 
Messrs.   Blanchard  and  Jeffries,'  and  from  this 
we    learn  that,  after   waiting   at    Dover    from 
December  25,    1784,    for  a  favourable  gale  to 
reach  the  Continent,  they  determined  on  Friday 
morning,  January  7,  1785,   to  prepare  for  their 
voyage,    the    sky    being    clear,    the    weather 
moderate,    and    the   wind    N.N.W.     At  eight 
o'clock  the  signal  gun  was  fired,  the  flag  hoisted 
at  the  Castle,  and  soon  after  twelve  the  ascent, 
which  was  successful  in  every  way,  took  place. 
Although  the  aeronauts  had  to  throw  out  all 
their    ballast    and    gear,  and  finally   cut  away 
the    car  itself  in  order    to  escape  falling    into 
the  Channel,    at    three  o'clock    they  '  entered 
France,'  and  descended  at  a  point  just  twelve 
miles  from  the  coast.     Some  years  later,  when 
the  French  proposed  transporting  an  army  of 
invasion  across  the  Channel  in  1797  by  means 
of  balloons,  Mrs.  Carter  sarcastically  remarked  : 
'  Surely  they  must  have  great  confidence  in  the 
friendship  of  the  "  Prince  of  the  power  of  the 


air. 


The  good  people  of  Deal  contented   them- 


40  A    WOMAN    OF 

selves  with  plain  practical  sins,  such  as  smug- 
gling, and  never  troubled  their  heads  about 
speculative  refinements  upon  wickedness.  Mrs. 
Carter  heartily  wished  that  all  books  that 
taught  people  to  be  wicked  under  colour  of 
argument  and  principle  were  publicly  burnt  at 
Tyburn. 

'  Our  great  people,'  she  wrote,  '  break 
through  all  the  sacred  authority  of  law,  and 
lose  all  sense  of  what  is  decent  in  pursuit  of 
French  diversions,  and  are  surrounded  by 
French  tailors,  French  valets,  French  dancing 
masters,  and  French  cooks.  Our  fine  ladies 
disgrace  the  "  human  shape  divine,"  and  become 
helpless  to  themselves  and  troublesome  to  all 
the  world  besides,  with  French  hoops,  and  run 
into  indecent  extravagance  of  dress,  inconsis- 
tent with  all  rules  of  sober  appearance  and  good 
economy.  Little  people  always  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  their  superiors,  and  we  misses  in  the 
country  have  our  heads  equally  turned  with 
French  fashions  and  French  fooleries,  which 
makes  us  break  the  law,  and  smuggle  for  the 
sake  of  getting  French  finery.' 

In  this  description  she  hardly  does  herself 
justice,  for  she  had  never  squandered  her 
money  on  blonds  and  gauzes. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  41 

Mrs.  Carter  was  no  free  trader.  Smuggling 
was  a  subject  on  which  she  felt  strongly,  and 
she  was  always  willing  to  assist  her  suffering, 
misled  neighbours  by  any  means  in  her  power. 
It  hurt  her  to  see  the  carriages  of  people  of  the 
first  rank  in  the  kingdom  leave  Deal  laden  with 
every  article  of  contraband  goods,  and  she  was 
indignant  that  the  rich  and  great  should  avail 
themselves  with  impunity  of  the  frauds  which 
caused  these  poor,  miserable  people  to  be 
brought  to  ruin,  and  entailed  a  fearful  sacrifice  of 
life,  for  this  infamous  trade  indirectly  contributed 
to  many  murders.  The  insolence  of  the  smug- 
glers was  no  doubt  very  great,  as  their  trade 
was  encouraged  by  those  who  both  made  the 
laws  and  broke  them  ;  but  there  were  sad  de- 
vastations amongst  them,  and  the  seizures,  like 
their  gains,  were  immense.  They  reckoned  that 
if  they  saved  one  boat  out  of  three  they  were 
quits,  which  showed  the  amount  of  their  profits. 

Colonel  Thomas  Best,  of  Chilston  Park 
and  Cowling  Castle,  Kent,  M.P.  for  Canter- 
bury, and  Governor  of  Dover  Castle,  was 
amongst  Elizabeth  Carter's  friends  and  neigh- 
bours. His  nephew,  Thomas  Best,  lived  at 
Boxley,  near  Maidstone,  on  the  direct  road 
between  Deal  and  London.     At  dead  of  night 


42  A    WOMAN    OF 

his  slumbers  were  occasionally  disturbed  by 
sounds,  the  cause  of  which  he  suspected,  and 
perhaps  did  not  wholly  condemn.  On  opening 
the  window  to  make  a  faint  protest,  he  received 
the  invariable  reply,  '  Good  night.  Squire  ;  it's 
all  right,  we'll  shut  the  gates  ! '  with  which  ex- 
planation he  had  perforce  to  content  himself, 
though  he  knew  full  well  that  twenty  stalls  in 
his  stables  would  that  night  be  vacant,  and  that 
all  the  servants,  grooms,  gardeners,  stablemen, 
and  labourers  were  out  on  the  same  errand. 
Even  the  outrider  who  preceded  the  family 
coach  and  four  with  a  large  lamp  strapped  to 
his  waist  in  front,  when  they  dined  out,  and 
was  called  'the  Moon,'  would  at  that  moment 
be  lighting  the  smugglers  through  the  green 
lanes  that  then  did  duty  for  roads.  In  Boxley 
Woods  contraband  articles  were  temporarily 
hidden,  and  removed  when  convenient  to  a 
neighbouring  well,  where  they  could  be  safely 
stowed  away  in  a  chamber  twenty  feet  below 
the  surface  of  the  ground,  of  sufficient  size  in 
which  to  turn  a  coach  and  four.  There  they 
awaited  removal  by  other  willing  helpers  from 
a  neighbouring  parish,  and  in  this  manner 
eventually  reached  their  destination.  Though 
murders  and  hangings  must  occasionally  result 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  43 

when  thieves  fall  out,  in  the  main  the  whole 
country  side  worked  harmoniously  together, 
with  a  right  good  will  and  common  purpose, 
and  were  all  ready  to  join  the  gay  throng  not 
only  for  the  greed  of  gain,  but  the  love  of  sport. 

These  tales  of  bygone  days  are  recounted 
by  Thomas  Best's  grandson,  Major  Mawdistly 
Gaussen  Best,  who  also  declares  that  his  wife's 
ancestor,  Sir  William  Brockman,  of  Beech- 
borough,  was  placed  in  rather  an  equivocal 
position  by  the  untimely  leakage  of  a  keg  of 
brandy  just  as  his  carriage  was  crossing 
Rochester  Bridge.  It  had  been  stowed  away 
ostensibly  by  the  servants,  in  the  sword  case 
at  the  back  of  the  carriage,  and  covered  with  a 
hanging  cushion  against  which  the  passengers 
rested.  If  they  should  be  attacked  by  high- 
waymen the  cushion  would  be  removed,  and 
the  swords  pulled  out  at  a  moment's  notice. 

From  the  same  source  a  tradition  is  handed 
down  directly  of  the  origin  of  the  word  'grog.' 
Admiral  Vernon,  of  Nacton,  Suffolk,  and  M.P. 
for  Ipswich,  who  took  Portobello  with  six  ships 
of  the  line  on  November  22,  1739,  married 
Sarah  Best,  of  Boxley.  He  is  described  by  his 
relative  as  an  obstinate  old  fellow,  who  bullied 
the  naval  authorities.     When  his  men  were  out 


44  A     WOMAN    OF 

of  beer  he  substituted  rum  and  water,  to  which 
the  men  promptly  gave  the  name  of  '  grog  '  in 
compliment  to  the  old  suit  of  grogram  that  the 
Admiral  invariably  wore.  His  monument  in 
Westminster  Abbey  was  erected  by  his  uncle, 
Lord  Orwell. 

Deal  had  become  an  important  place  about 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It 
possessed  three  streets  running  parallel  to  the 
sea,  but  until  1790  it  was  neither  paved,  lighted, 
nor  cleaned.  The  inhabitants  were  seafaring 
men,  and  many  of  them  smugglers.  The  sea 
immediately  opposite  the  town  affords  a  pro- 
tected anchorage,  about  eight  miles  long  and 
six  broad,  called  the  Downs,  and  was  the  ren- 
dezvous for  the  East  India  Fleet  and  other 
shipping  ;  sometimes  nearly  400  sail  were  safely 
riding  there.  The  Goodwin  Sands  form  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  Downs,  and  extend 
about  ten  miles,  almost  from  Ramsgate  to 
Kingsdown.  In  stormy  weather,  when  the  waves 
break  over  them  with  violence,  they  are  a  source 
of  great  danger  to  ships  coming  from  the  East. 
At  low  water,  people  frequently  land  on  them, 
but  when  the  tide  begins  to  flow  the  sand  be- 
comes soft  and  quick,  and  the  largest  vessel 
driven  upon  them  is  quickly  swallowed  up. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  45 

A  set  of  brave  and  experienced  seamen, 
called  '  hovellers,'  assisted  ships  in  distress,  and 
were  the  means  of  rescuing  thousands  of  lives. 

William  Falconer,  in  the  first  canto  of  his 
poem,  'The  Shipwreck,'  dedicated  in  1762  to 
Edward,  Duke  of  York,  describes  the  skill  and 
intrepidity  of  these  brave  men  ;  whose  exploits 
were  often  varied  by  acts  of  extortion  and 
plunder. 

In  1799  Deal  was  in  a  great  bustle  with 
the  embarkation  of  troops  for  Holland.  The 
'  hovellers  '  volunteered  their  services  for  carry- 
ing not  only  the  men,  but  their  baggage,  on 
board,  and  though  their  impedimenta  appeared 
to  Elizabeth  Carter  sufficient  for  an  army  like 
that  of  Xerxes,  they  transported  it  in  safety 
with  surprising  despatch.  They  patriotically 
refused  any  reward  from  Government,  in  spite 
of  the  '  amazing  fatigue '  they  had  endured. 
As  the  troops  and  baggage-waggons  passed 
Mrs.  Carter's  door,  she  saw  with  satisfaction 
that  the  bulk  was  increased  by  beds  slung  like 
hammocks,  so  that  the  soldiers  would  not  be 
obliged  to  lie  on  the  damp  ground.  The  Duke 
of  York  gave  the  men,  in  whose  boat  he  went 
off,  ten  guineas. 

Elizabeth  Carter's    parcels  were  conveyed 


46  A    WOMAN     OF 

from  London  in  a  Sandwich  '  hoy,'  which  was 
a  barge  with  one  deck  and  one  mast,  something 
between  a  boat  and  a  ship.  In  the  '  Fairy- 
Queen  '  we  read  of  the  arrival  of  three  *  hoys  ' 
of  Saxons.  Though  goods  had  never  been 
known  to  miscarry,  it  '  was  proper '  to  require 
the  master's  name.  From  Sandwich  to  Deal 
they  were  forwarded  once  a  week  by  a  carrier. 

With  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  Goodwin 
Sands,  tradition  asserts  that  during  the  reign 
of  William  Rufus  an  island  belonging  to  the 
great  Earl  Godwin  was  suddenly  submerged 
as  a  mark  of  Divine  displeasure. 

Lesser  upheavals  caused  by  internal  dis- 
sensions disturbed  the  peace  of  this  quiet  little 
town  at  a  later  period. 

Dr.  Carter  incurred  the  severe  displeasure 
of  his  congregation  by  refusing  to  read  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  so,  in  order  to  appease  their 
wrath,  his  brother  gave  him  i,ooo^.  wherewith 
to  keep  a  curate  to  read  it  for  him. 

A  friend  wrote  a  satirical  letter  to  the 
*  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Deal,'  congratulat- 
ing them  on  the  step  they  had  taken  in  '  pre- 
senting their  Minister  in  the  Spiritual  Court 
for  omitting  to  read  that  antient  and  venerable 
part  of  our   Liturgy.     The  laudable  zeal  they 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  47 

had  shown  for  the  purity  of  the  Catholic  Faith 
would  transmit  their  memories  with  a  sweet- 
smelling-  savour  to  the  latest  posterity.  It  would 
be  said  that  when  orthodoxy  was  retiring  from 
the  innermost  parts  of  the  land,  the  men  of 
Deale  arrested  her  flight,  and  detained  her  for 
a  while  on  the  borders  of  the  sea.'  After  a 
learned  theological  disquisition,  the  writer  con- 
cludes :  ''Tis  possible  you  may  suspect  I  have 
been  talking  to  you  hitherto  in  a  bantering  and 
sarcastic  strain.  I  am  really  very  much  in 
earnest  when  I  ask  whether  you  can  approve 
the  severe  treatment  that  Dr.  Carter  has 
received  ?  Allowing  that  you  have  fallen  into 
a  squabble  with  him  about  the  weighty  matter 
of  a  parish  clerk,  could  you  settle  the  dispute 
no  otherwise  than  by  driving  him  to  keep  a 
curate  ?  You  bear  testimony  to  the  honesty 
of  his  character  at  the  same  time  that  you  hurt 
his  fortune.  You  must  know  him  to  be  a  man 
above  prevarication,  who  would  not  outwardly 
assent  to  what  he  could  not  approve.  I  hope 
that  now  the  Doctor  is  a  declared  heretic,  you 
are  so  consistent  as  to  avoid  all  manner  of  con- 
versation with  him  ;  nay,  I  can  hardly  think  it 
quite  safe  for  you  to  hold  any  correspondence 
with  his  most  ingenious  and  amiable  daughter, 


48  A    WOMAN     OF 

the  young  lady  being,  I  fear,  a  little  Infected 
with  her  father's  pestilential  principles.  Pray 
keep  your  own  wives  and  daughters,  yea,  and 
your  sons  too,  out  of  her  way,  or  very  fatal  may 
be  the  consequences.  Whether  in  the  course  of 
your  trading  with  the  opposite  Continent,  you 
have  never  smuggled  one  cargo  of  French 
principles,  you  yourselves  best  know.  If  such 
Is  the  case.  It  will  surely  be  the  wisest  way  to 
confine  your  dealings  for  the  future  to  brandy, 
wine,  tea,  gold  and  silver  lace,  and  not  to 
meddle  with  goods  so  little  suited  to  a  Protes- 
tant Constitution.' 

Mrs.  Carter  wrote  from  these  regions  of 
discord,  where  the  sun  rose  and  set  In  a 
quarrel,  expressing  a  wish  to  enter  into 
acquaintance  with  the  fishes,  for  fishes,  good 
creatures,  are  mute.  This  mighty  commotion 
made  her  even  perpetrate  an  Irish  bull,  for  she 
exclaimed :  *  Do  not  dissuade  me,  for  I  am 
quite  determined,  if  ever  I  keep  a  lapdog,  or  a 
monkey.  It  shall  be  a  fish.'  She  trusted  less  to 
'time  and  chance  which  happens  to  all,' than 
to  the  disposal  of  Providence,  which  often  by 
unexpected  methods  calms  the  tumult  of  human 
passions.  She  sometimes  walked  to  Kings- 
down,  a  small  fishing  village,  where  the  good 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  49 

folks  had  not  even  heard  (happy  people !)  that 
the  clerk  of  Deal  Chapel  was  dead.  The 
kind  of  reading  she  most  wanted  to  see  was 
a  '  subpoena '  to  summon  her  out  of  this  up- 
roar, where  she  was  driven  about  by  storms 
of  commotion.  She  agreed  with  Shenstone 
that  '  no  one  should  destroy  an  insect  or 
quarrel  with  a  dog  without  a  reason  sufficient 
to  vindicate  it  through  all  the  Courts  of 
Morality.' 

The  building  of  Deal  Chapel,  of  which  Dr. 
Carter  was  perpetual  curate,  was  commenced 
in  1707.  The  parish  church  was  one  mile 
inland,  and  did  not  suffice  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  increasing  population  of  Lower 
Deal,  so  a  brick  building,  with  a  roof  of 
curiously  framed  timber-work,  wholly  supported 
on  the  side  walls,  was  erected.  The  total  cost, 
including  the  inclosing  of  two  acres  of  burial 
ground,  of  2,554/.  12s.  4^d.,  could  not  be  de- 
frayed by  subscriptions,  so  an  Act  of  Parliament 
was  obtained  in  171 2  by  which  a  duty  of 
two  shillings  was  laid  upon  every  ton  of  coals 
brought  into  the  town  till  May  i,  1727,  to  be 
applied  to  the  building  and  adorning  of  the 
said  chapel. 

Elizabeth  Carter  frequently  paid  long  visits 

E 


50  A    WOMAN    OF 

to  Canterbury,  and  from  thence  gave  graphic 
descriptions  of  life  in  a  country  town  during 
the  eighteenth  century.  With  regard  to  every- 
thing external  she  found  it  a  most  agreeable 
situation.  Every  morning  she  was  serenaded 
by  a  concert  of  rooks  lodged  in  the  elms  at  a 
litde  distance  from  the  window,  and  '  Oh, 
enchanting  sound !  she  heard  the  owl.'  All 
looked  so  like  the  country  that  she  was  apt  to 
think  herself  in  a  village.  The  venerable 
ruins  of  the  old  Castle,  and  their  desolate 
buildings  overgrown  with  moss  and  ivy,  added 
greatly  to  the  beauty  of  the  poetical  surround- 
ings. A  little  antique  tower  that  had  sustained 
the  silent  batteries  of  time  through  a  long 
course  of  centuries,  would  be  a  fitting  place  to 
converse  with  the  dead,  for  there  would  be 
little  fear  of  interruption  from  the  living.  The 
fine  warm  weather  enjoyed  at  Canterbury 
would  be  great  news  to  anybody  at  Deal,  where 
in  April  the  thermometer  must  be  many  degrees 
below  extreme  cold.  The  town  was  by  no 
means  always  in  repose,  as  from  the  foregoing 
description  might  be  supposed — there  were 
assemblies,  charades,  and  lampoons. 

The  game  of   '  Push    Pin,'  in   which   Mrs. 
Carter    delighted,    was     introduced    into    the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  51 

assemblies  as  a  variety  from  dancing,  to  the 
great  annoyance  of  '  all  the  smart  squires  in 
the  county,'  who,  doubtless,  thought  it  beneath 
the  dignity  of  territorial  magnates.  When 
there  was  no  '  Push  Pin'  going  forward,  Mrs. 
Carter  was  heartily  fatigued,  sitting  in  dismal 
solitude  till  three  in  the  morning.  When  asked 
if  it  was  true  that  her  London  friends  had 
expressed  surprise  at  '  Push  Pin  '  being  played 
at  the  Canterbury  assemblies,  she  answered 
'  No,  but  I  am  informed  that  it  is  publicly 
talked  of  in  the  drawing-room  at  Madrid,  and 
that  the  Queen  of  Spain  thinks  it  very  odd.' 
Though  the  dignity  of  '  the  assembly  '  was  a 
source  of  great  amusement  to  her,  she  did  not 
wish  to  affront  the  company,  against  whom  she 
bore  no  malice,  and  wondered  if  any  of  her 
friends  had  heard  rumours  of  her  '  trundling  a 
hoop  in  the  cloisters.'  This  might  escape 
censure,  as  it  was  no  affront  to  the  assembly, 
but  she  was  told  it  was  '  very  near  as  bad,'  as  it 
would  be  an  affront  to  the  Church. 

Canterbury  society  suddenly  became  pos- 
sessed of  *  the  spirit  of  tragic  fury,'  and  gave  a 
representation  of  '  The  Royal  Convert,'  in  which 
Elizabeth  Carter  played  the   part  of  Hengist, 

All    the    actors    came  off  with    flying  colours, 

£  2 


52  A    WOMAN    OF 

although  they  had  never  rehearsed  it  but  once, 
for  whenever  they  met  for  that  purpose,  they 
had  so  much  to  say  to  themselves  in  plain 
English  that  they  could  not  confine  themselves 
to  talking  in  buskins.  They  feared  they  might 
be  lampooned,  for  there  was  a  lampoon  going 
about  in  Canterbury,  that  some  attributed  to 
an  officer  in  the  Army,  and  others  to  a  gentle- 
man in  the  Navy  ;  while  a  third  party  compli- 
mented Elizabeth  Carter.  However,  a  fourth 
denied  her  the  honour,  or  in  any  case  were 
positive  that  she  had  been  assisted  to  a  very 
considerable  extent.  The  true  author  must 
have  laughed  at  these  profound  conjectures. 
As  Canterbury  had  conferred  the  dignities  of 
author  and  satirist  upon  her,  Elizabeth  Carter 
warned  her  friends  that  it  would  be  dangerous 
to  offend  her,  as  she  might  make  good  the 
accusation  by  beginning  to  lampoon  them.  It 
was  the  best  time  in  the  world  to  turn  author, 
for  the  spirit  of  scribbling  was  extremely 
powerful,  and  verses  swarmed  during  the  warm 
weather  in  great  abundance,  and  with  as 
striking  effect  as  gnats.  As  she  had  become 
so  great  a  critic,  her  friends  would  find  her 
lying  in  wait  to  catch  their  harmless  syllables 
as  spiders  do  f^ies. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  53 

Elizabeth  Carter  lived  to  see  great  changes 
in  the  neighbourhood   of  Deal.     She  remem- 
bered a  house  that  contained  noble  rooms,  a 
cedar  gallery  with  striking  air  of  sombre  great- 
ness, magnificent  chimney-pieces,  a  chapel  which 
she  had  seen  gilded  by  the  rays  of  the  setting 
sun,  and  a  pavilion  fronted  by  a  marble  colon- 
nade, which  looked  upon  a  garden  that  reminded 
her  of  the  groves    of   Babylon.     This    estate 
was  divided,  the  building  sold  for  the  material, 
and  for  the  most  part  levelled  to  the  ground. 
A  noble  old   seat  en  decadence  impressed  her 
most  painfully,  even  if  its  downfall  were  uncon- 
nected with  guilt.      It   showed   how   little   the 
objects  which  formed  the   pride  and   pleasure 
of  one    generation    influence    the    fickle    taste 
of  the    next.      But  she   rejoiced   to    think  the 
destructive  folly  of  man  has  no  power  over  the 
works    of  God.     '  People  who  have   so   little 
taste    or    feeling,'    she    said,    'as    to    show    no 
respect  for  the  abode  of  their  ancestors  seem 
to   be  singularly  careless   of  everything  prior 
to  their  own   individual  selves.     When  a  fair 
inheritance    is    transmitted    to  a    family,    they 
ought   to   feel   a  certain   degree   of  tenderness 
for   the  abode  of  the  ancestors  from  whom  it 
is  derived.' 


54  A    WOMAN    OF 

An  absolute  ruin,  though  a  melancholy 
object,  may,  however,  soothe  the  imagination 
by  the  idea  of  repose ;  and,  while  it  proves 
the  weakness  and  littleness  of  all  that  is  great 
below,  and  the  overthrow  of  human  art  and 
magnificence,  it  causes  us  to  look  through  the 
desolations  of  time  to  our  own  eternity.  Were 
it  not  for  the  certainty  of  immortality  the  sight 
of  a  ruin  would  only  inspire  a  feeling  of  gloom 
and  horror. 

The  mansion  of  Northbourne  Court  had 
been  granted  to  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  son  of  the 
Archbishop  of  York,  by  James  I.  Colonel 
Edwin  Sandys  was,  however,  fighting  with 
Cromwell's  army  at  the  battle  of  Worcester 
when  he  received  the  wounds  of  which  he  died 
at  Northbourne.  His  grandson.  Sir  Richard 
Sandys,  left  the  property  to  his  four  daughters, 
who  sold  it.  The  house  was  pulled  down,  and 
only  the  walls,  that  formed  a  very  considerable 
ruin,  remained  of  the  once  large  and  stately 
building. 

Sir  Egerton  Bridges,  a  Kentish  baronet 
and  man  of  letters,  claimant  of  the  barony  of 
Chandos  of  Sudeley,  and  editor  of  the  '  Censura 
Literaria '  and  '  Collins'  Peerage  of  England,* 
describes  in  his  autobiography   the  prevailing 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  55 

characteristics  of  the  county  society  during  the 
eighteenth  century,  which,  Hke  that  of  every 
neighbourhood,  varied  according  to  the  tone 
given  to  it  by  a  few  conspicuous  personahties. 

In  earlier  days,  Kent  produced  Sir  Thomas 
Wyatt,  the  poet  and  statesman  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  whose  son  was  beheaded  as  a 
leader  of  the  rebellion  against  Queen  Mary ; 
Lord  Buckhurst ;  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  the  gallant 
and  accomplished  soldier  and  poet,  and  his 
father-in-law,  Sir  Francis  Walsingham  ;  during 
the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  Sir  Dudley  Digges, 
whom  '  y^  most  knowing  of  Princes  King- 
James  sent  as  Embassador  to  y^  Emperour 
of  Russia,'  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  Sir  Roger  Twis- 
den,  the  scholar  and  historian,  and  Sir  Edward 
Dering,  who  founded  the  library  at  Surrendar 
Dering.  But,  at  the  time  of  which  Sir  Egerton 
Bridges  wrote,  unintelligent  squires  ruled  the 
day.  Their  talk  he  could  not  bear,  but  he 
admits  he  acted  upon  them  as  a  wet  sheet,  for 
they  suspected  that  he  had  ridiculed  them  in  his 
novel  'Arthur  Fitzalbini.'  One  of  the  Knatch- 
bulls,  it  is  true,  was  an  author,  but  no  one  had 
ever  heard  of  a  Honywood  having  written  a 
book.  Unlike  Job,  who  longed  that  his  enemy 
might  commit  himself  by  rashly  attempting  to 


56  A    WOMAN    OF 

write  a  book,  Sir  Egerton  Bridges  apparently- 
thought  it  detracted  from  the  esteem  in  which 
the  Honywoods  had  been  held  in  Kent  since 
the  reign  of  Henry  III.  that  no  member  of  the 
family  had  tried  his  hand  at  the  making  of 
books.  The  Furnesses  of  Waldershare  raised 
themselves  by  smuggling,  and  enriched  Lord 
Guildford,  Sir  Edward  Dering,  and  Lord 
Bolingbroke.  Catherine,  the  last  representa- 
tive of  the  Furness  family,  married  first,  Lewis, 
Earl  of  Rockingham,  and  secondly,  Francis, 
Earl  of  Guildford.  She  died  without  issue  and 
bequeathed  her  estate  to  her  second  husband. 
Lord  Cowper,  with  his  pack  of  hounds,  was 
popular  at  the  Moat,  until  the  Corporation  of 
Canterbury,  within  whose  bounds  the  manor 
was  situated,  insisted  that  he  should  employ  no 
workmen  in  the  rebuilding  of  his  house  but 
such  as  were  freemen  of  the  city.  He  con- 
sequently made  his  home  in  Hertfordshire,  and 
the  Moat  was  pulled  down.  Nothing  remains 
but  a  farmhouse  and  part  of  the  old  dog- kennel. 
Lord  Rockingham,  the  second  Marquis,  who 
was  Prime  Minister  in  1765,  was  well  esteemed 
at  Lee's  Court.  But  those  who  possessed 
talents  were  rarely  seen.  Mr.  Robinson,  after- 
wards Lord  Rokeby,  brother  of  Mrs.  Montagu, 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  57 

*  Queen  of  the  Blues,'  on  retiring  from  Parlia- 
ment, secluded  himself  at  Horton,  near  Hythe. 
Old  John  Lewis  pursued  his  antiquarianism  at 
the  little  fishing  village  of  Margate,  of  which  he 
was  vicar,  while  Dr.  Brook  Taylor,  LL.D.  and 
F.R.S.,  indulged    his   philosophical   genius   at 
Bifrons,  so  called  from  its  two  fronts.    Sir  John 
Hales  shut  himself  up,  like  the  miser  Elwes,  on 
his  immense  estate,  living  on  a  crust,  and  allow- 
ing his  only  son  to  die  in  prison.     The  bold 
refractory  and  clever  boy,  Thurlow,  afterwards 
Lord  Chancellor,  was  leading  his  schoolmaster, 
Talbot,  a  life  of  torment    at    the    Canterbury 
Grammar  School,  and  by  his  temper,  and  the 
daring  directness  of  his  talents,  laying  the  foun- 
dation of  his  future  greatness.      From  a  small 
house  opposite  the    west   door  of  Canterbury 
Cathedral  had  once  issued  a  Countess  of  Salis- 
bury,   and    the    same    humble    tenement    was 
destined  to  be  the  birthplace  of  a  Chief  Justice 
of  England.     Dover  had  supplied  a  Lord  Chan- 
cellor  who    occupied  the    woolsack   for  nearly 
-twenty   years   in  the  person   of  Philip   Yorke. 
Mrs.   Macaulay,  the  republican  historian,   was 
at  Ollantigh,   a   fine   old  house  that  had  been 
erected  by  Sir  Thomas   Kemp  in   the  reign  of 
Henry    VII.,   while   her   brother,    John    Saw- 


58  A    WOMAN    OF 

bridge,  the  patriotic  alderman  and  member  for 
the  City  of  London,  was  dreaming  of  civic 
honours  and  John  Wilkes.  Old  Dr.  Nicholas 
Carter,  the  father  of  Elizabeth,  was  writing 
theological  tracts  against  his  neighbour,  the 
orthodox  Randolph,  and  bandying  Latin  epi- 
grams with  Sir  George  Oxenden  of  Deane ; 
and  the  poetess  herself  was  writing  odes  to 
wisdom,  corresponding  with  Archbishop  Seeker, 
and  translating  Epictetus,  Near  Sandgate  there 
were  the  Brockmans  of  Beechborough,  whose 
ancestor,  Sir  William  Brockman,  gallantly  de- 
fended Maidstone  in  1648  against  the  Parlia- 
mentary forces  under  General  Fairfax ;  and 
Mr.  Deedes,  of  Sandling  and  Saltwood  Castle, 
which  was  partially  destroyed  by  the  earth- 
quake of  1587.  Sir  John  Shaw  had  a  small 
marine  villa  on  the  beach. 

Such  was  East  Kent  from  about  1720  to 
1765.  Sir  Egerton  Bridges  regretted  that  he 
was  only  slightly  acquainted  with  Elizabeth 
Carter,  from  whom  he  might  have  learned 
much.  For  a  clearer,  more  extensive,  or  better 
regulated  mind,  he  declared,  was  unrecorded  in 
the  annals  of  genius  and  learning.  He  found 
her  manners  cold,  stiff,  and  formal,  the  result 
of  constitutional  shyness,  of  which  her  intimate 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  59 

friends,  however,  had  no  cause  to  complain.  In 
Kent  she  Hved  principally  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  her  native  town,  but,  like  Sir  Egerton, 
she  found  it  pleasant  to  escape  from  provincial 
surroundings  to  the  world  at  large. 

There  might  be  found  at  this  period  Pope, 
Bolingbroke,  Gray,  Johnson,  Hume,  Chester- 
field, Robertson,  Warburton,  Lowth,  Burke, 
Lord  Chatham,  Fielding,  Richardson,  the 
Whartons,  Akenside,  Young,  Lyttelton,  Horace 
Walpole,  Pulteney,  Colman,  Mason,  Soame 
Jenyns  and  Garrick.  With  most  of  these  men 
she  was  acquainted,  and  many  of  them  were 
her  intimate  friends. 


6o  A    WOMAN    OF 


CHAPTER  III 

MRS.    carter's    views    ON    MARRIAGE 

In  accordance  with  the  dignified  custom  of  the 
day,  which  conceded  to  ladies  the  privilege  of 
being  the  first  to  acknowledge  the  flight  of 
time,  Elizabeth  Carter  at  a  certain  age  as- 
sumed the  brevet  rank  of  a  matron,  for  which 
she  had  not  qualified  by  matrimony  :  a  fashion 
which  has  become  obsolete  in  these  latter  days, 
when  of  course  all  the  world  is  young. 

Matrimony  she  considered  '  a  very  right 
scheme  for  everybody  but  herself,'  and  she 
returned  from  her  brother's  marriage  exceed- 
ingly consoled  by  the  reflection  that,  '  though 
she  was  very  much  tired  of  a  wedding,  it  was 
not  her  own.'  Her  gloomy  forebodings  on  her 
sister-in-law's  chances  of  happiness,  founded  on 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  her  brother's  temper 
and  uncomfortable  health,  were  happily  not 
realised  ;  it  proved    to  be  a  union  of  uninter- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  6i 

rupted  affection,  confidence,  and  happiness. 
In  spite  of  her  clear  sight  and  common  sense 
she  overlooked  the  fact  that  in  this  matter,  as 
in  many  another  hazardous  enterprise,  fortune 
often  favours  the  brave. 

Her  'square  cornered  heart'  and  views  on 
this  subject  filled  her  family  and  friends  with 
dismay.  Her  father  told  her  that,  though  it 
always  gave  him  a  '  sharp  uneasiness  '  to  differ 
from  her,  like  every  good  parent  he  secretly 
prayed  to  see  her  married  to  a  good  man,  who 
could  maintain  her  decently,  and  whose  temper 
was  suitable  to  her  own.  No  one  ought  to 
marry  against  his  or  her  will,  he  allowed,  but  will 
should  be  guided  by  reason.  Though  she  did 
not  value  the  judgment  of  the  world,  it  was  not 
to  be  slighted,  and  marriage  '  procured  more 
consideration  than  single  life,  which  is  often 
errant,  and  seldom  meets  with  much  respect.' 
He  laid  no  commands  upon  her,  as  he  wished 
neither  to  part  with  her  nor  to  keep  her  against 
her  desire.  He  did  not  condemn  her,  but 
commended  her  to  the  direction  of  Heaven, 

These  urgent  appeals  and  warnings  were 
dispatched  to  '  Dear  Bet '  at  intervals  during 
many  years.  The  respective  merits  of  Mr.  B,, 
Mr.   D.,  and  Mr.  G.  were  severally  set   forth, 


62  A    WOMAN    OF 

according  to  the  proposal  under  immediate  dis- 
cussion. (Even  at  this  distance  of  time,  as- 
suredly Mrs.  Carter's  sense  of  honour  would 
have  forbidden  their  real  names  being  given.) 
At  length,  weary  of  platitudes,  feigned  resigna- 
tion, and  the  conventional  methods  of  parental 
persuasion,  the  worthy  Doctor  pours  out  his 
whole  soul,  like  a  woman,  into  a  postscript,  the 
only  place  where  the  feminine  mind  is  said  to 
be  clearly  set  forth. 

It  contains  a  terrible  threat  : 

'  P.S.  —  I  cannot  forbear  saying  that  when  I 
die,  and  you  are  single,  you  will  certainly  find  a 
vast  difference  with  regard  to  the  respect  of  the 
world.' 

Fortunately,  however,  his  daughter  Eliza- 
beth possessed  a  personality  that  insured  her 
the  respect  of  all  whose  opinion  she  valued, 
and  greater  than  any  that  she  could  have 
secured  by  a  commonplace  and  loveless  mar- 
riage. Elizabeth  Carter  was  nevertheless  a 
woman,  though  a  very  extraordinary  one. 
Once,  indeed,  she  hesitated,  and  came  very 
near  to  accepting  a  gentleman  '  in  every  way 
unexceptionable,'  to  whom  she  was  very  much 
attached,  but  he  was  so  ill  advised  as  to  publish 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  63 

at  that  moment  some  verses  of  which  she  could 
not  approve,  and  in  spite  of  the  regrets  and 
remonstrances  of  her  father  and  friends  '  at  her 
missing  so  good  a  prospect,'  she  remained 
obdurate.  Her  Strephon  quickly  found  another 
Delia,  and  ever  after  expressed  a  strong  sense 
of  her  obliging  and  handsome  conduct !  Her 
friends  were  less  accommodating,  and  reminded 
her  that,  after  all,  as  '  Strephons  were  not  so 
plenty,'  she  need  have  no  fear  of  their  again 
finding  occasion  to  weary  her  with  their  per- 
suasions. Such  an  irresolute  Strephon  would 
have  proved  a  very  incapable  lord  and  master, 
but  her  good  sense  would  have  prevented  her 
ever  exhibiting  to  the  world  that  sorry  spectacle, 
a  husband  that  is  not  the  head  of  the  wife,  or 
even  the  better  man  of  the  two. 

That  stormy  February  passed,  and  only 
from  time  to  time  do  we  read  of  fresh  breezes 
arising  to  ruffle  the  still  waters.  Perhaps  the 
ease  with  which  Strephon  consoled  himself 
shook  her  faith  in  the  constancy  of  mankind, 
for  she  wrote  to  a  friend,  '  I  agree  with  you 
on  the  effect  fine  scenery  might  have  on  such 
lovers  as  are  really  in  love,  but  as  this  is  a 
circumstance  which  happens  much  less  fre- 
quently than  the  misses  are  apt  to  suppose,  a 


64  A    WOMAN    OF 

ball-room  does  better  for  small  talk  than  an 
Arcadian  solitude.'  After  all,  one  Delia  ap- 
peared to  do  practically  as  well  as  another,  and 
a  poor  black  man  who  was  an  object  of  charity 
afforded  her  a  comfortable  proof  that,  however 
destitute  of  all  other  possessions,  every  mortal 
man  may,  at  all  events  (if  he  desire  it),  be 
sure  to  find  a  wife.  Dr.  Johnson  wished  there 
might  be  a  special  form  of  service  for  '  marriages 
of  convenience.' 

Dr.  Carter,  the  worthy  clergyman  at  Deal, 
with  two  families  to  provide  for,  was  exaspe- 
rated by  these  views,  and  wrote  severely  : 

'  If  you  intend  never  to  marry,  you  certainly 
ought  to  live  retired,  and  not  appear  in  the 
world  with  an  expense  which  is  reasonable 
upon  the  prospect  of  getting  a  husband,  but 
not  otherwise.' 

Mrs.  Carter's  family  were  startled  one 
evening  at  ten  o'clock  by  a  most  outrageous 
ringing  at  the  door,  which  proved  to  be  a 
letter  containing  a  proposal  from  an  impetuous 
young  man,  whose  wig  was  always  in  an 
uproar,  and  who  ran  over  everybody  he  met, 
hanging  his  clothes  upon  every  lock  and  bolt 
in  the  extreme  trepidation  of  his  pace.  The 
servant  of  the  aforesaid  Orlando,  who  was  the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  65 

bearer  of  the  letter,  demanded  an  immediate 
answer,  but  Mrs.  Carter  thought  it  might  be 
as  well  to  read  it  first ;  and,  though  she  had 
an  emphatic  *  No '  extremely  at  his  service, 
would  not  detain  his  emissary.  This  hasty 
youth  had  resolved  '  prendre  le  Roman  par 
la  queue,  et  debuter  par  le  mariage ' ;  but,  as 
he  had  never  signified  his  intention  before,  to 
be  sure,  the  demand  was  somewhat  abrupt  and 
peremptory.  The  next  morning,  before  any 
soul  was  up,  the  messenger  returned,  with  the 
same  violence  of  ringing,  to  carry  back  her 
answer  to  his  master,  whom  she  expected  any 
day  to  come  and  fly  away  with  her  in  a  chaise 
and  one,  unless  he  should  happen  to  meet  with 
somebody  else  and  be  married  on  the  road. 

It  was  alleged  that  both  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  (Dr.  Seeker)  and  the  Bishop  of 
London  (Dr.  Hayter)  wanted  to  marry  Mrs. 
Carter.  She  always  positively  denied  the 
rumour  about  Archbishop  Seeker,  but  her 
contemporaries  were  not  clear  that  in  the  case 
of  Bishop  Hayter  the  report  was  equally  un- 
founded, though  she  never  allowed  that  it  was 
true.  One  day  in  her  presence,  the  Arch- 
bishop, feeling  his  freedom  in  jeopardy,  and 
losing  that  presence  of  mind   so    essential  to 


66  A    WOMAN    OF 

good  breeding,  exclaimed  :  '  Brother  Hayter, 
the  world  says  that  one  of  us  two  is  to  marry 
Madam  Carter  ;  now  I  have  no  such  intention, 
and  resign  her  to  you.'  Bishop  Hayter,  how- 
ever, knew  her  well,  and  was  assured  that 
whatever  might  be  the  views  of  her  family  and 
friends,  for  her  own  part  she  would  probably 
be  inwardly  murmuring  '  God  forbid  ! '  in  Greek 
at  the  idea  of  either  of  them,  as  she  had  been 
heard  fervently  to  ejaculate  when  it  was  sug- 
gested that  the  learned  but  uncouth  Dr.  Burton 
was  very  much  her  admirer.  So,  with  more 
courage  and  gallantry,  the  Bishop  bowed  to 
her  and  replied,  '  I  will  not  pay  your  Grace 
the  same  compliment ;  the  world  does  me  great 
honour  by  the  report.' 

Though  the  Archbishop's  manners  were 
not  prepossessing,  he  remained  her  staunch 
friend  through  life.  She  was  frequently  his 
guest  at  Lambeth,  and  was  indebted  to  him 
for  his  advice  in  her  translation  of  Epictetus. 
As  the  owner  of  her  house  at  Deal,  he  proved 
a  most  generous  landlord,  though  he  indulged, 
it  is  true,  in  a  few  malicious  insinuations  when 
the  world  said  that  Madam  Carter  would  marry 
Lord  Bath  (Pulteney). 

When  the   Archbishop  died  she  sincerely 


THOMAS    HAYTER,    BISHOP    OF    LONDON 


From  a  t^aintinn  in   Fnilunti   Pahicc 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  67 

mourned  the  great  and  good  man,  with  whose 
friendship  she  had  been  honoured  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  and  to  whom  she  was  under  such 
innumerable  obligations.  He  left  a  sealed 
packet  for  her,  the  contents  of  which  were  never 
known.  It  was  not  found  amongst  her  papers, 
nor  was  there  any  memorandum  of  it. 

When  Mrs.  Carter  was  upwards  of  forty 
years  of  age,  her  father  received  a  '  marvellous 
odd  letter '  from  a  Yorkshireman,  desiring  to 
be  informed  with  all  possible  speed  whether  his 
daughter  had  made  any  resolution  against 
marrying,  and  if  not  if  she  was  engaged.  But 
Mrs.  Carter  said,  '  Surely  the  poor  man  must 
have  lived  in  a  wood,  or  he  would  have  known 
that  no  one  has  a  right  to  ask  the  first  ques- 
tion, and  could  not  suppose  that  the  curiosity 
of  a  stranger  would  be  gratified  as  to  the  last.' 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  note  the  fact  that 
no  more  was  heard  of  the  Yorkshireman.  If 
Dr.  Carter's  answer  was  half  as  concise  and 
definite  as  his  daughter's,  it  would  not  require 
the  astuteness  of  a  North  Countryman  to  see 
that  nothing  farther  remained  to  be  said  on  the 
subject. 

On  one  occasion,  when  Mrs.  Carter  had 
been  much  tormented  by  her  kind  friends  as  to 

F   2 


68  A    WOMAN    OF 

the  designs  of  a  man  who  had  absolutely  none 
with  regard  to  her  or  anyone  else,  she  wrote, 
*  I  am  convinced  that  one  is  not  secure  from 
these  malicious  insinuations  on  this  side  an 
hundred  ;  having  run  away  from  matrimonial 
schemes  as  far  as  dry  land  goes,  my  next  step 
must  be  the  sea.'  She  occasionally  retorted  by 
raising  the  hopes  of  her  tormentors.  *  Learn 
not  to  be  too  confident,'  she  wrote ;  *  my  heart 
which  I  thought  so  secure  was  yesterday  in 
one  half  hour  entirely  given  up  to  a — would 
you  believe  it  ? — to  a  Dutchman  !  The  reason 
of  my  being  thus  taken  by  surprise  was  that  I 
never  suspected  danger  from  an  amphibious 
inhabitant  of  the  bogs  of  Holland.  I  know  I 
shall  find  no  compassion  from  you,  but  it 
luckily  happens  I  do  not  want  it ;  for  this 
morning  I  took  a  dose  of  algebra  fasting,  which 
has  entirely  cured  me.' 

To  another  friend  who  had  urged  her  to 
marry  she  wrote  :  '  Bless  me,  I  had  almost 
forgot  to  let  you  into  a  most  important  secret, 
that  I  am  grown  desperately  in  love,  more  in 
love  than  anybody,  with  a  most  agreeable  man, 
who  talks  a  good  deal,  laughs  a  good  deal, 
sings  a  good  deal,  and  yet  I  cannot  very  well 
define  why  I  so  greatly  admire  him.    I  believe, 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  69 

however,  the  strange  enchantment  that  renders 
him  so  universally  agreeable  must  be  the  most 
settled  look  of  good-nature  and  happiness  that 
ever  appeared  in  any  human  countenance. 
And  now  I  suppose  you  begin  to  be  in  great 
pain  for  my  heart,  but  it  is  really  in  no  danger, 
and  I  can  safely  answer  for  its  giving  me  no 
kind  of  trouble.' 

At  last  her  friends  learnt  to  approach  the 
subject  more  cautiously,  and  when  one  of  them 
wrote  of  a  worthy  man  that  had  the  highest 
regard  for  Mrs.  Carter,  she  hastened  to  add, 
'  Do  not  be  frightened,  I  mean  nothing  more 
dangerous  than  Mr.  Richardson '  (the  novelist). 
Mrs.  Carter  replied  :  '  The  paragraph  in  your 
letter  did  really  put  me  in  a  fright.  I  had  for 
a  moment  forgot  that  some  folks  are  married, 
that  other  folks  are  galloped  away,  ready  to 
break  their  necks  and  look  for  a  wife  in  some 
distant  country,  and  that  there  are  no  folks  in 
the  world  that  trouble  their  heads  about  me. 
It  was  not  till  I  saw  the  quiet,  harmless  name 
of  Richardson  that  all  these  comfortable  con- 
siderations occurred  to  my  thoughts.' 

She  was  informed  that  Richardson  possessed 
an  '  exceedingly  like  portrait '  of  her,  drawn  by 
Mrs.  Chapone  without  her  knowledge,  but  that, 


70  A    WOMAN     OF 

as  he  could  not  possibly  wear  it  in  his  snuff- 
box, she  need  not  be  scandalised. 

Though  Mrs.  Carter  believed  that  mankind 
were  upon  the  whole  a  much  better  set  of 
beings  than  some  moralists  think  proper  to 
represent  them,  she  either  failed  to  find  per- 
fection, or,  having  found  it,  the  fates  were 
adverse. 

Before  creating  the  personality  of  Sir  Charles 
Grandison,  Richardson  asked  Mrs.  Carter  to 
define  her  ideal  of  the  perfect  man,  uniting  the 
fine  gentleman  and  the  Christian,  that  every- 
one wanted  him  to  draw.  She  replied  :  '  One 
distinguishing  part  of  his  character  must  be  an 
absolute  superiority  to  false  glory  and  false 
shame,  a  steady  opposition  to  the  false  maxims 
of  the  world  in  essential  points,  and  a  perfectly 
good-natured  compliance  in  trifles.' 

Richardson  had,  Mrs.  Carter  declared,  no 
doubt  a  very  good  hand  at  painting  excellence, 
but  there  was  a  strange  awkwardness  and  ex- 
travagance in  his  vicious  characters.  To  be 
sure,  poor  man,  he  had  read  in  a  book,  or  heard 
someone  say  that  there  was  such  a  thing  in  the 
world  as  wickedness,  but  being  perfectly  igno- 
rant in  what  manner  it  operates  on  the  human 
heart,  he    drew  such    a   monster   as    probably 


SAMUEL    RICHARDSON 

Fniin  ,1  Iniintinn  by  Josc/^h   Hinhincirc  in   the  Wl/ioinl!  Ptirhcut  Giilh-ry 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  71 

never  existed  in  mortal  shape.  Mrs.  Chapone 
apprehended  that  his  creation  of  Sir  Charles 
Grandison  would  occasion  the  kingdom  being 
overrun  with  old  maids.  The  difference  be- 
tween this  ideal  character  and  the  generality  of 
men  would  be  so  striking,  and  would  make 
women  so  hard  to  please,  the  consequence 
would  be  single  life  to  ninety-nine  out  of  a 
hundred. 

Fielding,  on  the  contrary,  seemed  to  think 
no  character  natural  but  such  as  are  a  disgrace 
to  the  human  species. 

Richard  Savage  wrote  to  Elizabeth  Carter 
in  1739: 

'  Dear  Madam, — Be  pleased  to  accept  my 
thanks  for  your  pious  intention  of  making  me 
a  saint.  I  am  truly  desirous  of  becoming  so, 
because  as  saints  they  say  are  allowed  the 
happiness  of  conversing  with  angels,  I  may  be 
so  blest  as  to  become  worthy  of  the  conversa- 
tion of  Miss  Carter.  .  ,   . 

'  Your  most  affectionate  and  devoted  ser- 
vant, 

'  R.  Savage.' 

The  following  reflections  flowed  from  Mrs. 
Carter's    pen     as    she    was    thinking    of    the 


72  A    WOMAN    OF 

marriagfe  of  one  of  her  friends,  whose  chance 
of  happiness  appeared  to  her  problematic  : 

'  After  all,  excepting  the  sine  qua  non  of 
a  good  conscience,  and  exemption  from  real 
calamity,  that  odd  thing  which  we  call  happiness 
entirely  depends  upon  the  temper  and  imagina- 
tion of  every  individual  ;  and  as  "  the  heart 
knows  its  own  bitterness,"  so  "  a  stranger  does 
not  intermeddle  with  its  joys,"  Upon  this 
principle  I  comfort  myself  that  the  way  of  life 
which  would  harass  and  perplex  my  aching 
head  with  perpetual  agitation  and  cares,  serves 
only  to  keep  some  of  my  friends  in  good 
humour  and  good  spirits.' 

A  very  imprudent  match  caused  Mrs.  Carter 
to  be  drawn  into  a  sorrowful  scrape  by  ex- 
pressing her  opinions  too  strongly.  '  Bless  me,' 
she  exclaimed,  *  what  business  had  I  to  talk 
about  things  I  know  nothing  about  ?  As  my 
ill  stars  would  have  it,  I  happened  to  express 
great  pity  for  people  under  these  dolorous  cir- 
cumstances. Out  of  mere  indolence  I  shall 
give  up  the  point,  and  leave  all  lovers  to  hang 
or  drown  themselves  as  they  think  fit.' 

Assurance  of  the  '  mutual  society,  help  and 
comfort,  both  in  prosperity  and  adversity,  that 
the  one   ou^ht  to  have  of  the  other  '  carried 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  ^z 

little  conviction  to  Mrs.  Carter's  mind,  for 
when  harassed  almost  to  death  with  various 
disputes  and  turmoils,  she  wrote,  '  Although  I 
know  you  will  be  angry,  I  cannot  for  my  life 
help  telling  you,  that  ever  since  I  was  made 
unhappy  by  these  commotions,  it  has  been  a 
great  consolation  to  me  that  I  never  was 
tempted  by  any  voluntary  connection  to  en- 
gage myself  in  the  tumults  of  the  world.  If 
I  have  suffered  from  the  troubles  of  others, 
what  might  I  not  have  suffered  from  a  hus- 
band ? '  Socrates,  by  taking  to  wife  the  most 
impossible  person  of  his  acquaintance,  sought 
to  show  the  world  that  there  was  no  one  with 
whom  he  could  not  live  peaceably.  He  desired 
to  have  under  his  roof  one  who  would  hourly 
exercise  his  powers  of  endurance.  When  the 
ill-tempered  Xanthippe  trampled  on  his  cake, 
poured  water  on  his  head,  and  transmitted  her 
failings  to  a  very  foolish  son,  he  found  the 
taming  of  the  shrew  a  more  impossible  task 
than  Shakespeare  has  since  represented  it  to 
be.  He  was,  after  all,  outdone  in  patience  by 
the  philosophic  navvy  who,  when  his  wife  beat 
him,  said,  '  It  don't  hurt  me,  and  it  do  her  a  deal 
o'  good.'  The  navvy  kept  silence,  whereas  the 
unhappy  married  life  of  Socrates  was  prover- 


74  A    WOMAN    OF 

bial  amongst  the  ancients.  It  is,  therefore,  not 
surprising  that  Epictetus  did  not  consider  '  the 
affair  of  marriage  in  this  state  of  the  world  a 
thing  which  is  especially  suited  to  the  cynic' 
When  one  of  his  hearers  ventured  to  remind 
him  of  the  beautiful  Hipparchia  who  adopted 
the  views  and  the  austere  life  of  her  husband 
Crates,  and  gave  them  as  conspicuous  an 
example  of  what  a  good  wife  may  be  as 
Xanthippe  did  the  reverse,  Epictetus  sternly 
rebuked  him  for  quoting  such  an  exceptional 
case.  '  You  are  speaking  of  a  circumstance 
which  arose  from  love,'  he  said,  '  and  of  a  woman 
who  was  another  Crates,  but  we  are  inquiring 
about  ordinary  marriages.'  Crates  placed  his 
wife's  fortune  in  the  hands  of  the  bankers,  with 
directions  that  it  should  be  given  to  his  sons 
if  they  should  prove  fools,  and  to  the  poor  if 
they  proved  philosophers. 

After  all,  neither  Epictetus  nor  his  translator 
had  any  practical  experience  in  the  matter,  and 
circumstances  are  but  externals  ;  the  immovable 
self  should  be  the  same  in  all.  Therefore, 
argued  a  friend,  '  Miss  Carter  at  Paris,  Miss 
Carter  with  a  ducal  coronet  on  her  coach, 
would  be  the  same  domestic,  affectionate, 
dutiful  creature,  as  Miss  Carter  at  Deal  in  her 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  75 

peaceful  retirement.  She  would,  like  a  reason- 
able woman,  secure  to  herself  every  day  some 
hours  for  recollection  and  improvement,  and 
would  as  highly  enjoy  every  moment  of  leisure 
as  she  does  now.  And  Miss  Carter  in  a  family 
of  her  own,  ordering  her  family  affairs,  sur- 
rounded by  sons  and  daughters,  dressed  in  her 
plain  work,  fed  with  her  own  plum-puddings, 
taught  by  her  own  care,  would  be  still  as  happy 
and  as  valuable  a  person  as  either.' 

However  much  gratified  Elizabeth  Carter 
may  have  felt  by  her  friend's  opinion  of  her 
individuality  that  surroundings  could  not  affect, 
she  rather  resented  the  allusion  to  the  possible 
family  that  under  other  circumstances  she  would 
have  so  ably  clothed,  fed  and  educated,  and 
answered  with  some  asperity  : 

*  One  would  think  by  the  comfortable  do- 
mestic scenes  into  which  you  introduce  me, 
that  you  had  Lovelace's  tombstone  in  your  eye. 
One  part  of  your  description  I  can  answer,  for 
children  I  have,  and  though  I  say  it  who 
should  not  say  it,  four  as  fine  children  as  need 
be  desired  [her  half-brother  and  sisters].  They 
are  not,  indeed,  fed  with  my  own  plum-pud- 
ding, because  I  have  not  any  to  give  them, 
but  as  far  as  they  have  any  appetite   for  the 


76  A    WOMAN    OF 

slender  diet  of  learning,  all  I  have  in  the  world 
is  much  at  their  service.' 

'  Whate'er  we  think  on't,  Fortune's  but  a  toy, 
Which  cheats  the  soul  with  empty  shows  of  joy ; 
A  mere  ideal  creature  of  the  brain, 
That  reigns  the  idol  of  the  mad  and  vain ; 
Deludes  their  senses  with  a  fair  disguise. 
And  sets  an  airy  bliss  before  their  eyes. 
But  when  they  hope  to  grasp  the  glitt'ring  prey, 
Th'  unstable  fantom  vanishes  away. 

•  •••••• 

Could  mortals  learn  to  limit  their  desires, 
Little  supplies  what  Nature's  want  requires, 
Content  affords  an  inexhausted  store, 
And  void  of  that  a  Monarch's  wealth  is  poor. 
Grant  but  ten  thousand  pounds,  Philaurus  cries, 
That  happy  sum  would  all  my  wants  suffice. 
Assenting  powers  the  golden  blessing  grant. 
But  with  his  wealth,  his  wishes  too  augment. 
With  anxious  care  he  pines  amidst  his  store. 
And  starves  himself  to  get  ten  thousand  more. 
Ambition's  charms  Philotimus  inspire, 
A  treas'rer's  staff  the  pitch  of  his  desire  : 
The  staff  he  gains,  yet  murmurs  at  his  fate, 
And  longs  to  shine  first  Minister  of  State. 
A  coach  and  four  employ'd  Cosmelia's  cares, 
For  this  she  hourly  worried  Heav'n  with  pray'rs. 
Did  this  when  gained  her  restless  temper  fix  ? 
No,  she  still  prays — for  what  ? — a  coach  and  six. 

A  soul  which  uncorrupted  Reason  sways 
With  calm  indiff'rence  Fortune's  gifts  surveys ; 
If  Providence  an  affluent  store  denies, 
Its  own  intrinsic  worth  that  want  supplies ; 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  ^^ 

Disdains  by  vicious  actions  to  acquire 
That  glitt'ring  trifle  vulgar  minds  admire  ; 
With  ease  to  Heaven's  superior  will  resigns, 
Nor  meanly  at  another's  wealth  repines  ; 
Firmly  adheres  to  Virtue's  steady  rules, 
And  scorns  the  fickle  deity  of  fools.' 

When  Mrs.  Thrale  had  given  great  occasion 
to  the  enemy  to  blaspheme  and  triumph  over 
the  '  Bas  Bleu '  ladies  by  her  marriage  with 
Piozzi,  her  daughter's  singing  master,  and  Mrs, 
Macaulay,  the  republican  historian,  had  capti- 
vated a  youth,  twenty-six  years  her  junior — a 
marriage  which  might  have  been  pardonable, 
Mrs.  Montagu  sarcastically  said,  if  he  had  been 
great-great-grandson  to  one  of  the  regicides — 
Mrs.  Carter,  aged  sixty-five,  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Montagu  : 

'  Marriage  seems  to  be  as  general  this  year 
as  influenza.  I  hope,  as  you  and  I  have  escaped 
the  one,  we  shall  not  be  carried  off  by  the 
other.  Good  lack  a  day !  What  a  tapage 
such  an  event  would  make  in  the  world ! ' 

Up  to  the  time  of  her  death,  in  her  eighty- 
ninth  year,  Mrs.  Carter  would  say,  '  Nobody 
knows  what  may  happen  ;  I  never  said  I  would 
not  marry.' 


78  A    WOMAN    OF 


CHAPTER    IV 

ARCHBISHOP    SECKER    AND    CATHARINE    TALBOT 

Elizabeth  Carter's  knowledge  of  the  world 
was  considerably  extended  during  her  earlier 
years  by  her  friendship  with  Catharine  Talbot, 
the  adopted  daughter  of  Dr.  Seeker,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  Mrs.  Carter  was  fre- 
quently the  guest  of  Dr.  Seeker,  when,  as 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  he  resided  at  Cuddesdon, 
and  also  at  St.  Paul's,  when  preferment  to  that 
deanery  provided  the  Bishop  with  a  house  in 
London. 

Later  on,  when  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Dr.  Seeker,  with  Mrs.  and  Miss  Talbot,  was 
always  ready  to  bid  her  welcome  to  Lambeth, 
where  they  did  not  insist  on  her  company  all 
day  long,  but  left  her  free  to  sit  as  unmolested 
by  her  own  fireside  as  in  her  own  home.  In 
summer  she  might  watch  from  the  windows  the 
*  family  syllabub '  and  dance  under  the  trees  in 
the  garden. 


CATHARINE    TALBOT 


From  the  frontispiece  to  '  The  Works  of  the  late 
Miss  Catharine  Talbot,'  (1S12) 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  79 

As  a  guest  of  Archbishop  Seeker,  Mrs. 
Carter  was  lodged  in  one  of  the  towers,  and 
was  the  only  occupant  of  that  side  of  the  palace 
which  is  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  house 
by  the  chapel.  Through  this  and  other  vener- 
able buildings  she  used  to  pass  every  night, 
under  Gothic  arches  dimly  lighted  by  pale 
lamps,  with  all  the  winds  of  heaven  whisding 
round  her,  followed  by  the  echo  of  her  own 
steps,  and  the  deep  hollow  sound  of  the  closing 
doors.  In  this  situation  she  felt  with  great 
force  the  grandeur  of  a  storm.  The  prospect 
from  one  of  her  windows  was  a  long  green 
court,  terminated  by  the  gateway  which  forms 
a  '  fine  perplexity  of  arches '  in  all  directions. 
The  other  side  of  the  tower  was  shaded  by  tall 
trees,  and  through  their  branches  there  was 
a  view  of  the  Thames,  which  washed  their 
roots.  She  delighted  in  rambling  through  the 
long,  narrow  Gothic  passages  which  led  she 
knew  not  whither.  From  a  little  window  in  one 
of  them  she  could  look  down  into  the  chapel, 
which  she  often  viewed  by  moonlight. 

The  more  frequented  parts  of  the  house 
were  so  modernised  as  to  have  lost  all  their 
ancient  style,  and  what  in  its  original  state 
would  have   appeared    solemn  and  venerable 


8o  A    WOMAN    OF 

became  merely  dull,  the  only  point  ever  gained 
by  modernising  Gothic  buildings.  She  always 
*  honoured  Lord  and  Lady  Northumberland  for 
preserving  the  Gothic  grandeur  of  Alnwick 
Castle,  undiminished  by  the  fopperies  of  modern 
prettiness.' 

During  her  visits  to  Lambeth  Elizabeth 
Carter  joined  the  daily  family  readings  of 
English  authors,  conducted  in  an  orderly  and 
sociable  way,  after  breakfast  and  supper.  Ten 
o'clock  was  the  closing  hour  both  morning  and 
evening.  After  chapel  they  all  retired  to 
their  apartments,  unless  sunshine  tempted  them 
abroad,  and  Lady  Mary  Grey,  who  was  a  prin- 
cipal figure  in  their  little  domestic  history,  read 
Tully's  'Offices'  or  Moliere  to  Miss  Talbot, 
while  she  embroidered  or  painted.  When  day- 
light failed,  the  ladies  exercised  themselves  by 
walking  in  a  large  unfurnished  room,  sometimes 
by  moonlight,  conversing  in  a  manner  that 
made  that  hour  the  most  agreeable  of  the  four- 
and-twenty.  After  seven,  quadrille  was  called 
in,  to  vary  the  object  of  their  attention  from 
history  and  spinning  wheels  to  aces  black 
and  red. 

Thomas  Seeker,  who  was  born  in  1693,  was 
the  son  of  a  Dissenter,  and   whilst  studying 


WIT   AND   WISDOM  8i 

divinity  with  a  view  to  the  ministry,  finding 
himself  unable  to  determine  with  which  sect  he 
wished  to  identify  himself,  he  resolved  to  study 
physic  until  his  opinions  were  more  thoroughly 
settled.  He  took  his  degree  of  M.D.  at  Leyden 
in  1 72 1,  and  whilst  studying  anatomy  in  Paris 
formed  a  life-long  friendship  with  Martyn  Ben- 
son, afterwards  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  of  whom 
Pope  wrote  : 

'  Manners  with  candour  is  to  Benson  giv'n.' 

Through  the  persuasion  of  his  school-fellow, 
Joseph  Butler,  author  of  the  '  Analogy '  and 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Durham,  who  had  also 
been  educated  for  the  Dissenting  ministry, 
Seeker  returned  to  England  and  followed  his 
example  of  taking  orders  in  the  Established 
Church. 

The  advancement  of  these  three  young 
men.  Seeker,  Butler,  and  Benson,  was  entirely 
due  to  their  friend  Edward  Talbot,  who  on  his 
death-bed  recommended  them  to  the  notice  of 
his  father,  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  was  thus 
the  means  of  providing  the  Church  with  three 
distinguished  prelates. 

Edward  Talbot  died  of  small-pox  a  few 
months  after  his  marriage,  and  his  daughter, 
Catharine  Talbot,  was  born  in  1720,  five  months 


82  A    WOMAN    OF 

after  her  father's  death.  The  family  is  now  repre- 
sented in  the  peerage  by  Lord  Dynevor,  who  is 
descended  through  the  female  line  from  Edward 
Talbot's  elder  brother,  the  Lord  Chancellor. 

Thomas  Seeker  married,  in  1725,  Catherine 
Benson,  sister  of  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester. 
She  lived  with  the  widow  of  his  friend,  Edward 
Talbot,  and  after  their  marriage  the  Seekers 
persuaded  Mrs.  Talbot  to  make  her  home  with 
them.  They  had  no  family,  and  her  infant 
daughter,  Catharine,  was  brought  up  as  their 
own  child. 

After  twenty  years  of  married  life  Mrs. 
Seeker  died,  and  Mrs.  and  Miss  Talbot  con- 
tinued to  live  with  Archbishop  Seeker  till  his 
death  in  1768.  Catharine  Talbot  only  sur- 
vived him  for  a  short  time,  and  died  unmarried 
in  1770,  in  her  forty-ninth  year. 

Dr.  Seeker  was  successively  Rector  of  St. 
James's,  Piccadilly,  Bishop  of  Bristol  (1734), 
Bishop  of  Oxford  (1737),  Dean  of  St.  Paul's 
(1750),  and  in  1758  he  was  raised  to  the 
Archiepiscopal  See  of  Canterbury.  As  Rector 
of  St.  James's,  Piccadilly,  Dr.  Seeker  had  much 
trouble  in  steering  a  clear  course  amidst  the 
difficulties  occasioned  by  the  unfortunate 
differences    between    King    George    IL    and 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  82 


o 


his  eldest  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales.  His 
Royal  Highness  having  removed  to  Norfolk 
House,  which  is  in  the  parish  of  St.  James's, 
constantly  attended  Divine  service  at  that 
church.  The  first  time  he  came  the  curate 
inadvertently  began  prayers  with  the  usual 
sentence,  '  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father,' 
and  it  was  asserted  that  the  Rector  preached 
on  the  Fifth  Commandment,  '  Honour  thy 
father  and  thy  mother,' 

Bishop  Sherlock  could  only  defend  Seeker 
by  saying  that  he  must  certainly  have  been  in 
a  course  of  sermons  on  the  Commandments, 
and  was,  unfortunately,  obliged  to  preach  on 
this  particular  one  in  its  turn.  Seeker  him- 
self declared  that  his  whole  discourse  had  been 
on  the  subject  of  '  The  Lord  is  good  to  all.' 

In  any  case  his  Royal  Highness  forgave 
him,  and  he  baptized  most  of  the  Royal 
children,  including  the  future  King  George  III. 
He  could  not,  however,  attend  the  Prince's 
Court,  which  was  forbidden  to  all  those  who 
went  to  the  King's.  Dr.  Seeker  had  also  the 
misfortune  to  incur  his  Majesty's  displeasure, 
who  supposed  his  influence  much  greater  with 
the  Prince  than  it  really  was,  and  thought  he 
might  have  used  it  to  more  purpose.     For  this 

G  2 


84  A    WOMAN    OF 

reason  the  King  did  not  speak  to  him   for  a 
great  number  of  years. 

Through  life  Seeker,  Butler,  and  Benson 
lost  no  opportunity  of  advancing  each  other's 
interests.  Seeker  mentioned  Butler  to  the 
Queen  (Caroline  the  illustrious),  who  thought 
he  had  been  dead.  On  making  further  in- 
quiries she  was  assured  he  was  not  '  dead,  but 
buried.'  The  kind-hearted  Queen,  acting  on 
this  suggestion,  soon  after  appointed  him  her 
Clerk  of  the  Closet. 

Archbishop  Seeker  made  a  proposal  for 
appointing  bishops  in  some  of  the  American 
colonies  to  save  the  loss  and  hazard  incurred 
by  candidates  for  ordination,  who  were  obliged 
to  cross  the  Atlantic  at  the  cost  of  lOO/.  ;  of 
those  who  undertook  that  voyage  nearly  a  fifth 
part  actually  lost  their  lives.  He  contended 
that  the  members  of  the  English  Church  in 
America  did  not  enjoy  its  benefits,  having  no 
Protestant  bishop  within  3,000  miles  of  them, 
a  case  which  never  had  its  parallel  before  in 
the  Christian  world.  His  Grace  further  declared 
it  never  had  been  intended  to  appoint  a  bishop 
in  New  England,  but  that  episcopal  colonies 
had  always  been  proposed.  He  bequeathed 
1,000/.  to  this  scheme. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  85 

A  volume  of  Catharine  Talbot's  essays, 
reflections,  and  poems  was  published  after  her 
death  by  Elizabeth  Carter ;  her  writings  show 
her  to  have  been  a  woman  of  culture  and 
common  sense,  and,  as  in  the  every-day  con- 
duct of  life  sense  is  none  too  common,  her 
reflections  and  maxims  bear  reiteration.  The 
following  is  a  specimen  : 

*  On  the  employment  of  wealth,'  she  writes, 
describing  people  who,  by  squandering  their 
fortunes,  reduce  themselves  to  all  the  shifts 
and  pinches  that  often  make  them  rapacious 
and  dishonest.  '  By  lavishing  their  money  on 
a  hundred  poor  devils  who  have  run  them- 
selves into  misery  from  mere  worthlessness 
their  fortune  has  become  a  prey  to  the  good- 
for-nothing,  and  is  like  a  quantity  of  gold  dust 
dispersed  uselessly  in  the  air,  that  might  have 
been  melted  down  and  formed  into  regal  crowns 
and  monuments  of  glory.  Thus  the  man 
of  quality  is  reduced  to  all  the  meannesses 
imaginable,  and  has  the  humbled  air  of  in- 
feriority when  he  meets  the  eye  of  his  unpaid 
tradesman.' 

Elizabeth  Carter  corresponded  regularly 
with  Catharine  Talbot,  who  could  not  for  the 
life   of   her    write   short  letters.     One  of  her 


86  A    WOMAN    OF 

immoderately  long  epistles  to  a  friend  who  was 
travelling  in  the  East  saved  him  the  loss  of  a 
valuable  ring  that  had  been  given  to  him  by 
Lord  Northumberland.  He  was  attacked  by 
robbers,  who  examined  his  papers,  but  the 
sight  of  so  much  writing  discouraged  them, 
and  they  returned  all  the  packets,  including  one 
containing  the  ring. 

As  a  specimen  of  laconic  letters.  Miss 
Talbot  quoted  that  of  Quin  the  actor,  whose 
tongue,  his  monument  in  Bath  Abbey  tells  us, 

'  Kept  all  the  table  on  a  roar.' 

'  Mr.  Rich, — I  have  received  yours,  and  am 
at  Bath.  Quin.' 

*  Mr.  Quin, — I  have  received  yours,  and  you 
may  stay  at  Bath  and  be  hanged.  Rich.' 

Miss  Talbot  was  afraid,  however,  that  hanged 
was  not  the  orioinal  word. 

When  residing  at  St.  Paul's  Deanery, 
Sunday  was  the  evening  allotted  for  Mrs.  and 
Miss  Talbot  to  be  at  home,  in  order  that  fine 
ladies  might  not  be  interrupted  by  drays  and 
waggons,  or  hindered  from  going  to  drums  and 
plays. 

In  this  way  the   Talbots    saw  many  more 


WIT  lAND    WISDOM  87 

friends  than  they  did  when  living  in  Piccadilly 
during  Dr.  Seeker's  incumbency  at  St.  James's, 
for,  owing  to  the  distance,  fixed  days  and  ap- 
pointed times  were  necessary.  When  the  fine 
folk  set  about  going  to  St.  Paul's  in  an  after- 
noon, they  so  much  over-reckoned  the  distance, 
that  by  means  of  dining  by  sunrise  they  arrived 
an  hour  earlier  than  they  would  have  thought 
it  possible  at  St.  James's  to  ring  for  tea.  Every- 
one was  so  glad  and  so  obliged  by  these  labo- 
rious visits,  and  innumerable  court'sies  were 
made  to  a  neighbour  at  St.  James's  that  in 
other  days  the  Talbots  would  have  put  them- 
selves in  no  hurry  to  visit. 

The  Spring  Miss  Talbot  sometimes  passed 
in  the  beautiful,  well  -  cultivated  country  at 
Brompton,  which  was  all  laid  out  in  gardens, 
where  she  enjoyed  the  cuckoo  and  thrush,  and 
sometimes  the  nightingale.  There  was  some- 
thing so  charmingly  alive  in  the  environs  of 
London,  where  the  joy  of  town  and  country  was 
united,  and  it  was  possible  to  sit  on  a  shady 
seat  in  pure  air  and  sunshine,  surrounded  by 
roses  and  carnations,  and  to  hear  the  guns  from 
the  Park  and  Tower.  She  also  delighted  in  a 
sweet  village  called  Kilburn,  where  the  air  and 
grass  were  as  fresh  as  a  thousand  miles  from 


88  A    WOMAN    OF 

London.  Mrs.  Carter  declared  that  the  vale  of 
Tempe  that  ancient  poets  extol  could  not  have 
exceeded  in  beauty  those  delightful  meadows 
that  form  the  banks  of  the  Thames.  She  visited 
Richmond  in  1738  with  a  company  large  enough 
to  form  an  Eastern  monarch's  travelling  camp, 
and  though  she  was  so  'ratded  about  in  the 
coach '  that  she  was  fit  for  nothing  but  to  lie 
down  and  sleep  on  her  arrival,  she  walked  from 
thence  to  Twickenham  and  enjoyed  the  charm- 
ing landscapes.  By  the  interest  of  one  of  their 
company  with  •  Mr.  Pope's  celebrated  m^an 
John,'  they  got  a  sight  of  the  gardens  that 
adorned  the  poet's  villa  at  Twickenham.  From 
them  all  the  tedious  regularity  that  he  thus 
describes  was  banished  : 

'  No  pleasing  intricacies  intervene, 
No  artful  wildness  to  perplex  the  scene, 
Grove  nods  to  grove,  each  alley  has  a  brother, 
And  half  the  platform  just  reflects  the  other.' 

As  Mr.  Pope  was  so  sensible  of  the  false 
taste  of  this  dull,  unnatural  uniformity,  he  took 
care  to  avoid  it  in  his  own  garden,  which,  if 
not  so  unbounded  as  his  genius,  had  as  much 
variety  in  it.  This  charming  spot  resembled, 
more  closely  than  anything  Mrs.  Carter  had 
previously    seen,    those   beautiful    descriptions 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  89 

that  till  then  she  had  feared  existed  only  in  the 
imagination  of  poets.  The  shrubs  were  scattered 
about  with  the  most  agreeable  wildness.  The 
trees  were  grown  with  as  much  freedom  as  in 
a  forest,  and  not  distorted  into  the  unnatural 
shapes  of  triumphal  arches  or  elbow-chairs. 
In  one  part  of  the  garden  was  a  winding  ascent, 
leading  to  the  top  of  a  mount,  that  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  hedge  of  yew  and  covered  with 
trees.  Through  their  branches  was  discovered 
a  vista  of  the  Thames.  The  whole  place  ap- 
peared to  be  the  sequestered  habitation  of  a 
society  of  wood-nymphs,  and  formed  a  retreat 
for  the  Muses  equal  to  their  own  Parnassus, 
so  '  'twas  no  wonder  they  took  so  long  a  journey 
to  pay  such  frequent  visits  to  Mr.  Pope.' 

Miss  Talbot  was  thoroughly  versed  in  the 
theory  of  cheerfulness,  and  had  no  notion  that 
anybody  could  be  seriously  in  the  spleen,  though 
almost  everybody  is  subject  to  waking  dreams 
of  misery.  But  a  little  serious  reflection  sets 
life  in  a  very  different  light  from  that  in  which 
fancy  places  it  upon  every  little  vexation.  She 
had  a  great  notion  that  half  one's  business  in 
this  world  is  to  make  the  best  of  everything,  as 
common  good-breeding  teaches  us  to  do  at  the 
most  ordinary  entertainment  that  is  made  for  us. 


90  A    WOMAN    OF 

She  had  no  notion  of  the  nne-lady  airs  of 
hating  her  neighbours,  and  when  she  resided 
at  Cuddesdon  during  the  years  Dr.  Seeker  was 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  she  visited  eighteen  families 
at  distances  varying  from  three  to  fourteen 
miles,  and  twenty  neighbours  in  Oxford.  '  As 
for  seeing  people  one  likes,'  she  declared,  *  one 
must  learn  to  like  people  one  sees.  'Tis  a  note 
to  this  body,  a  message  to  that ;  an  errand  to 
one  end  of  the  house,  and  a  whim  to  send  one 
to  another ;  a  robin  to  be  fed  at  this  window, 
and  a  tom-tit  to  be  attended  to  at  another ; 
cats  or  chickens,  spinsters  or  ague  patients. 
Methusalem  was  a  happy  man,  if  he  had  any 
genius  for  filling  up  his  time.  When  anybody 
has  read  or  writ  a  folio  they  have  somewhat  to 
show  ;  but  bills  of  fare,  messages,  letters  of 
business,  are  Sibyl's  leaves  dispersed  by  the 
breeze.' 

Miss  Talbot  had  but  three  creatures  in  the 
world  over  whom  she  had  any  right  to  exercise 
control — a  foolish  dog,  a  restive  horse,  and  a 
perverse  gardener.  She  did  not  wish  to  be 
one  of  those  reformers  who  desire  to  mend 
everybody  around  them,  while  poor  self,  the 
only  person  they  could  really  influence,  is 
forgot.     She  rather  agreed  with  the  well-bred 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  91 

Pericles,  who  denied  that  either  prudence, 
justice,  or  fortitude  can  belong  to  women,  and 
therefore  gave  them  a  polite  admonition  to 
keep  quiet,  and  make  themselves  as  little  talked 
of  as  possible. 


92  A    WOMAN    OF 


CHAPTER  V 

MRS.    carter's    literary    WORKS    AND 
PHILOSOPHICAL    VIEWS 

In  1738,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  Elizabeth 
Carter  published  a  small  collection  of  poems, 
printed  by  Cave,  the  original  and  enthusiastic 
editor  of  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine,'  who,  as 
Johnson  declared,  scarcely  ever  looked  out  of 
the  window  but  with  a  view  to  its  improve- 
ment. In  this  periodical  some  of  her  poems 
had  previously  appeared  with  the  signature  of 
'  Eliza.' 

A  cut  of  St.  John's  Gate  figures  on  the 
title-page.  This  edition  is  very  scarce,  and 
only  two  of  the  poems  contained  in  it  were 
included  in  the  edition  generally  called  the  first, 
which  was  not  published  till  1762,  when  she 
was  forty -five  years  of  age. 

In  the  year  1739  she  translated  from  the 
French   of  M.    Crousaz   a  critique    of   Pope's 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  93 

'  Essay  on  Man.'  There  is  no  preface  ;  no 
translator  s  name  is  mentioned  ;  the  notes  are 
few  and  not  of  any  great  importance. 

Crousaz,  a  Swiss  professor,  and  zealous 
promoter  of  pure  religion,  believed  Pope's 
'  Essay  on  Man,'  notwithstanding  Warburton's 
elaborate  explanation,  to  be  hostile  to  revealed 
religion,  and  written  under  the  influence  of 
Bolingbroke.  Mrs.  Carter's  notes  tended  to 
moderate  the  severity  of  Crousaz's  criticism. 
She  always  defended  Pope  against  accusations 
of  ill-nature,  and  declared  that  he  had  been 
stung  by  provocation  and  ill-treatment. 

Warburton,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Gloucester, 
had  joined  in  a  cabal  against  Pope.  He 
accused  Milton  of  borrowing  from  pride  and 
affectation,  Dryden  from  want  of  leisure  and 
indolence,  Addison  from  modesty,  and  Pope 
of  necessity,  from  want  of  genius.  Though  he 
helped  Theobald  in  the  edition  of  Shakespeare 
published  in  opposition  to  that  of  Pope,  he 
afterwards  transferred  his  allegiance,  and  be- 
came as  ardent  in  his  defence  of  Pope  as  he 
had  been  zealous  for  the  triumph  of  his  oppo- 
nent. He  '  undertook  to  rescue  Pope  from  the 
talons  of  Crousaz.'  Pope  thus  expressed  his 
o-ratitude : 


94  A    WOMAN    OF 

'  You  have  made  my  system  as  clear  as  I 
ought  to  have  done,  and  could  not.  ...  I 
know  I  meant  just  what  you  have  explained  ; 
but  I  did  not  explain  my  own  meaning  so  well 
as  you.  You  understand  me  as  well  as  I  do 
myself,  but  you  express  me  better  than  I  could 
express  myself.' 

Pope  thus  clearly  shows  that  he  did  not 
intentionally  attack  religion.  If  Bolingbroke 
made  him  unwittingly  the  means  of  disseminat- 
ing his  views,  he  was,  as  Dr.  Johnson  triumph- 
antly declares,  '  now  engaged  with  his  eyes 
open  on  the  side  of  truth.'  Bolingbroke  always 
disguised  his  real  opinions  from  his  pupil,  and 
hated  Warburton  for  having  revealed  them  to 
him.  Pope  repaid  his  services  by  introducing 
him  to  Mr.  Allen,  '  who  gave  him  his  niece 
and  his  estate,  and  by  consequence  a  bishopric' 
Warburton  admitted  that  some  of  his  own 
writings  were  thought  vain,  insolent,  and  ill- 
natured,  and  many  of  his  bold  and  original 
criticisms  and  conjectures  in  his  edition  of 
Shakespeare  have  been  exposed  by  Dr. 
Johnson. 

The  concluding  sentence  of  a  sermon  War- 
burton preached  before  the  House  of  Lords 
in  1760,  on  the  anniversary  of  King  Charles's 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  95 

martyrdom,  sums  up  that  ill-fated  monarch's 
character  in  a  manner  that  displays  the 
preacher's  ingenuity  in  not  sacrificing  truth 
even  in  the  panegyric  of  princes  : 

'In  a  word,  his  princely  qualities  were 
neither  great  enough  nor  bad  enough  to  suc- 
ceed in  that  most  difficult  of  all  attempts,  the 
enslaving  of  a  free  and  jealous  people.' 

Elizabeth  Carter  translated  in  the  same 
year  (1739),  from  the  Italian,  Algarotti's  *  New- 
tonianismo  per  le  Dame,'  Sir  Isaac  Newton's 
Philosophy  explained  for  the  use  of  the  ladies, 
in  six  dialogues  on  light  and  colour.  Dr.  Birch 
wrote  of  her :  '  This  lady  is  a  very  extra- 
ordinary phenomenon  in  the  republic  of  letters, 
for  her  knowledore  of  the  ancient  and  modern 
languages  ;  an  equal  skill  in  any  one  of  them 
would  be  a  distinction  to  a  person  of  the 
other  sex.'  Mrs.  Carter  never  spoke  willingly 
of  either  of  these  translations — they  were  un- 
worthy of  her  powers. 

With  these  exceptions,  it  does  not  appear 
that  she  wrote  anything  for  the  press  till  her 
celebrated  translation  of  Epictetus,  which  she 
began  in  1749,  though  it  was  not  published  till 
1758.  From  this  hard  work  she  declared  her 
head  received  no  kind  of  injury.     She  would 


96  A    WOMAN    OF 

hardly  ever  read  or  work  for  more  than  half 
an  hour  at  a  time,  and  then  visit  for  a  few 
minutes  any  relations  In  the  house,  or  go  into 
her  garden. 

After  the  success  of  this  great  work,  which 
not  only  brought  her  in  i,ooo/.,  but  made  her 
acquainted  with  all  the  literary  people  of  the 
day,  she  wrote  to  one  who  feared  her  head 
might  be  turned  :  *  I  have  no  painful  excellence, 
alas !  to  give  you  any  particular  apprehension 
about  me  ;  I  wear  my  hat  in  the  same  way  as 
I  used  to  wear  it,  I  dress  just  as  awkwardly, 
and  look  just  as  silly  as  ever.'  Some  years 
earlier  she  had  written  to  a  friend  whose 
exaggerated  admiration  of  her  talents  pre- 
vented an  easy  intercourse,  and  whose  obse- 
quious letters  annoyed  her  : 

'  It  is  with  the  utmost  diffidence  that  I 
venture  to  do  myself  the  high  honour  of 
writing  to  you,  when  I  consider  my  own 
nothingness  and  utter  incapacity  of  doing 
any  one  thing  upon  earth.  Unless  I  had 
as  many  tongues  in  my  head  as  there  are 
grains  of  dust  between  this  and  Canterbury, 
it  is  impossible  for  me  to  express  the  millionth 
part  of  the  obligations  I  have  to  you,  there- 
fore I  must  content   myself  with  assuring  you 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  97 

that  I  am,   with  the  subHmest  veneration  and 
most  profound  humility, 

'  Your  most  devoted,  obsequious,  respectful, 
obedient,  obliged,  and  dutiful  humble  servant, 

'  E.  Carter. 

*  I  shall  die  with  envy  if  you  outdo  this.' 

The  extraordinary  circumstance  of  a  trans- 
lation from  the  Greek  of  so  difficult  an  author 
by  a  woman  made  a  great  noise  all  over 
Europe.  In  her  own  country,  however,  some 
persons  chose  to  assert  that  her  father  wrote 
it,  and  others  said  it  was  Archbishop  Seeker. 
George,  first  Lord  Lyttelton,  said  that  he  ad- 
mired Mrs.  Carter's  preface  more  and  more, 
and  was  much  struck  by  the  poem  prefixed  to 
it  by  Mrs.  Chapone.  '  The  English  ladies,'  he 
wrote,  '  will  appear  as  much  superior  to  the 
French  in  wit  and  learning  as  the  men  in 
arms.' 

The  quarto  volume,  published  by  subscrip- 
tion, consisted  of  all  Epictetus's  discourses 
preserved  by  Arrian  in  four  books,  fragments 
ranslated  from  the  original  Greek,  and  the 
'  Enchiridion,'  which  is  the  only  part  that  had 
been  previously  translated  into  any  modern 
language,    except    French.       In     17 10,    when 

H 


98  A    WOMAN     OF 

scarcely  twenty  years  old,  Lady  Mary  Wortley 
Montagu  had  translated  the  '  Enchiridion '  of 
Epictetus,  but  only  from  the  Latin  version. 
Her  great-grandson  Lord  Wharncliffe,  in  his 
edition  of  her  works,  published  in  1837,  draws 
attention  to  it  as  a  great  literary  curiosity.  He 
adds  that,  when  she  presented  it  to  Dr.  Gilbert 
Burnet,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  for  his  emenda- 
tions, she  wrote,  '  Here  is  the  work  of  one 
week  of  my  solitude.'  Mr.  Harris,  the  author 
of  *  Hermes,'  and  father  of  the  first  Earl  of 
Malmesbury,  lent  Mrs.  Carter  a  copy  of  the 
French  translation,  which  was  extremely  scarce, 
and  had  been  published  150  years  earlier.  He 
was  a  deep  scholar,  a  philosopher  and  philo- 
logist, and  his  critical  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
language  induced  her  to  consult  him  on  all 
obscure  passages. 

This  work  was  undertaken  at  the  request 
of  Miss  Talbot,  who  spent  the  hours  before 
breakfast  reading  Epictetus,  and  was  provoked 
that  there  was  no  translation  of  his  precepts 
preserved  by  Arrian,  a  work  which  she  was 
'  vastly  curious '  to  see.  She  lamented  that 
she  was  confined  to  dull,  imperfect  translations 
of  the  noblest  authors.  The  family  readings 
of  Livy  showed  the  greatest  sentiments  clothed 


WIT   AND    WISDOM  99 

in  the  meanest  words,  provoking"  the  most 
absurd  mixture  of  admiration  and  ridicule.  In 
defence  of  their  faith  and  homes,  the  Samnites 
were  described  as  fighting  '  for  church  and 
chimney,'  and  the  style  very  much  resembled 
that  of  a  celebrated  orator  in  the  county  of 
Kent,  who  in  the  petition  for  the  King  before 
the  sermon  prayed  for  'George  and  family.' 

Though  Mrs.  Carter's  first  translation  ap- 
peared to  her  neither  sense  nor  language,  she 
preferred  to  write  obscure  bad  English  rather 
than  disoblige  her  friend,  and  claimed  to  be, 
perhaps,  the  first  translator  who  was  ani- 
mated by  a  spirit  of  enthusiasm.  Dr.  Seeker 
considered  it  very  good,  and  only  objected  to 
its  being  '  writ  too  smooth,'  and  in  too  orna- 
mented a  style.  Epictetus  was  a  plain  man, 
and  spoke  plainly,  to  express  which  fact  the 
translation  should  preserve  the  spirit  of  the 
original,  and  unless  she  could  prove  that  Epic- 
tetus wore  a  laced  coat,  the  Archbishop  would 
not  allow  her  to  dress  him  in  one. 

Mrs.  Carter  acknowledged  that  the  '  En- 
chiridion '  was  merely  plain  common  sense  ;  but 
maintained  that  Arrian's  commentary  was  much 
less   simple,    and    in    some  places  abrupt   and 

unconnected,  and  if  the  sense  was  preserved, 

H  2 


loo  A    WOMAN    OF 

it  was  lawful  to  make  him  speak  a  language 
that  is  easy  and  natural,  rather  than  retain  any- 
peculiar  modes  of  his  own  country,  which  may 
appear  uncouth  and  awkward.  Arrian,  the 
Archbishop  argued,  was  not  a  commentator  on 
Epictetus  as  Simplicius  was,  but  professed  to 
exhibit  his  very  conversations  and  discourses, 
as  Xenophon  did  those  of  Socrates,  and  a 
translator  should  preserve  his  genuine  air  and 
character,  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  making 
him  rightly  understood. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  shows 
the  extent  to  which  her  old  friend  the  Arch- 
bishop, assisted  her  with  his  advice  : 

Letter  from  Dr,  Seeker,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury (then  Bishop  of  Oxford) 

Cuddesdon  :  Sept.  13,  1749. 

*  Good  Miss  Carter, — .  .  .  Every  ancient 
writer  should  be  laid  before  the  modern  reader 
such  as  he  is.  Epictetus  will  make  a  better 
figure  in  his  homely  garb  than  in  any  other. 
Abruptness  often  adds  much  force  and  per- 
suasion to  what  is  said.  It  shows  the  speaker 
to  be  in  earnest,  which  hath  the  greatest 
weight  of  anything  ;  and  the  same  sentiments 


THO.MAS    SKCKKK,    ARCHHISIlOl'    OK    CANTERBURY 
From  an  ciiiSniviliK  u/ter  u  /^ttinliiiu  hy  Sir  Ji>!<Iiiul  fieyiKthls.  P.R.A. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  loi 

delivered  in  a  smooth  and  polite  professional 
style  are  no  longer  the  same.  These  last 
were  the  methods  in  vogue  when  Epictetus 
lived,  and  they  had  brought  philosophy  into 
disregard  and  disgrace.  He  saw  it  with  grief; 
and  reproved  Messieurs  les  Philosophes  with 
an  honest  zeal.  ...  I  confess  myself  to  have 
bent  the  stick  as  strongly  as  I  could  the  oppo- 
site way  to  yours,  yet  I  think  a  rough  and 
almost  literal  translation,  if  it  doth  but  relish 
strongly  of  that  warm  and  practical  spirit  which 
to  me  is  the  characteristic  of  this  book,  infi- 
nitely preferable  to  the  most  elegant  para- 
phrase, that  lets  it  evaporate  and  leaves  the 
reader  unmoved.' 

After  this  Dr.  Seeker,  who  had  shut  him- 
self up  with  Epictetus  for  near  a  month,  never 
leaving  his  study  but  for  a  morning  ride  or 
walk,  refused  to  give  her  any  more  assistance, 
and  wrote  in  his  usual  blunt  manner  :  '  Are 
you  not  ashamed  to  persecute  a  poor  English 
Archbishop  with  heathen  Greeks,  which  it  may 
be  hoped  he  hath  the  grace  to  forget  entirely  ? 
But  you  cannot  be  quiet  in  your  bed,  you  say, 
without  doing  it.  Very  probable  truly ;  for 
I    read  of   some   persons,    "  They    sleep    not 


I02  A    WOMAN    OF 

except  they  cause  some  to  fall."  Mrs.  Carter 
answered  : 

'  'Tis  not  to  be  told  how  miserably  I  looked 
upon  Epictetus,  and  how  miserably  Epictetus 
looked  upon  me  at  the  news  that  my  Lord  had 
so  inhumanly  given  us  up  to  our  own  devices  ; 
however,  in  consequence  of  our  philosophy,  we 
are  determined  to  go  peaceably  blundering  on  ; 
he  in  being  translated  till  I  cannot  understand 
him,  and  I  in  translating  till  nobody  can  under- 
stand me.' 

Mrs.  Carter  was  very  careless  in  revising 
her  proof  sheets,  and  the  Archbishop  wrote  to 
her : 

'  Do,  dear  Madam  Carter,  get  yourself 
whipt,  get  yourself  whipt.  Indeed,  it  is  quite 
necessary.  I  know  you  mean  to  be  careful, 
but  you  cannot  without  this  help.  Everything 
else  has  been  tried,  and  proves  ineffectual. 
The  first  thing  I  have  cast  my  eyes  on  is 
Epictetus  for  Epicurus  ;  one  need  go  no  further 
to  see  what  prescription  your  case  indicates.' 

In  her  preface  Mrs.  Carter  mentions  the 
fact  that  the  Stoic  sect  was  founded  by  Zeno 
about  three  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and 
fell  with  the  Roman  Empire. 

All  philosophers  held  that  the  end  of  man 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  103 

is  to  live  conformably  to  nature,  though  their 
methods  of  attaining  to  this  end  varied.  Some 
of  the  Epicureans  by  means  of  pleasure  de- 
based man  into  a  mere  animal,  while  to  others 
pleasure  meant  only  freedom  from  uneasiness, 
for  even  Epicurus  recognised  the  universal 
obligation  of  a  virtuous  life,  and  his  adversaries 
admitted  that  his  own  was  simple,  pure,  and 
manly. 

The  Stoics,  on  the  contrary,  aimed  at  an 
absolute  perfection  of  the  soul,  but  their  noble 
efforts  resulted  in  the  idolatry  of  human  nature, 
and  a  proud  self-sufficiency  that  insulted  it,  by 
enjoining  a  perfection  of  which  this  life  is  in- 
capable. Neither  sect  understood  man  in  his 
mixed  capacity  ;  both  considered  him  as  inde- 
pendent and  self-reliant ;  thus  self-satisfaction 
checked  progress  and  improvement. 

Between  these  two  doctrines  Horace  wa- 
vered ;  at  one  time  he  aspired  to  become  an 
active  man  and  plunged  into  public  life ;  at 
another  he  glided  back  insensibly  into  the  pre- 
cepts of  Aristippus  and  the  pleasure-seekers, 
and  strove  to  make  circumstances  subservient 
to  himself,  instead  of  adapting  himself  to 
circumstances. 

Modern  heathens  are  apt  to  be  Epicureans 


I04  A    WOMAN    OF 

in  practice  and  Stoics  in  theory,  and  when 
both  fail  have  recourse  to  the  pistol,  that 
open  gate  of  which  Epictetus  probably  spoke 
ironically,  as  it  was  contrary  to  his  principles 
and  to  the  practice  of  the  best  of  his  sect : 
'  Go  hang  yourself,  like  a  grumbling,  mean- 
spirited  wretch  as  you  are ;  God  has  no  need 
of  such  querulous,  discontented  people  as  you.' 

Unacquainted  with  the  doctrine  of  a  future 
state,  the  Stoic  saw  no  other  means  of  vindi- 
cating the  justice  and  goodness  of  God,  and 
reconciling  it  with  the  unequal  distributions  of 
things,  than  by  renouncing  the  feelings  of  the 
human  heart  and  denying  pain  to  be  an  evil. 

The  preparation  of  the  mind  by  the  anti- 
cipation of  calamities  was  a  favourite  Stoic 
doctrine,  but  misfortunes  are  not  better  sup- 
ported by  being  considered  beforehand. 

By  the  regulation  of  his  desires  the  Stoic 
endeavoured  to  escape  disappointment,  to  anni- 
hilate feelings  of  aversion,  and  to  regard  all 
external  objects  with  absolute  indifference. 
Good  and  evil  meant  virtue  and  vice,  and 
excluded  life,  health,  ease,  friends,  reputation, 
which  were  mere  appearances,  from  any  share 
in  human  happiness.  A  universal  apathy  fol- 
lowed. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  105 

Active  exertion  or  restraint  of  the  inclina- 
tions insured  a  proper  observance  of  all  social 
relations,  and  comprehended  the  whole  system 
of  moral  duties.  A  Stoic  never  formed  any 
opinion,  so  could  not  be  misled  even  during 
sleep,  intoxication,  or  delirium,  though  some 
authors  were  so  very  reasonable  as  to  admit 
the  possibility  of  his  being  mistaken  in  his 
judgment  after  he  had  lost  his  senses.  The 
judgments  of  the  mind  the  Stoics  termed  prin- 
ciples, and  determined  the  faculty  of  willing 
on  the  actions  or  course  of  life.  The  precon- 
ceptions were  innate  notions,  the  adaptation  of 
which  is  the  office  of  reason,  and  is  insisted 
upon  by  Epictetus  as  a  point  of  the  highest 
importance.  By  prosperity  the  Stoics  under- 
stood the  actual  state  of  mind,  when  the 
affections  and  active  powers  are  so  regulated 
that  all  events  appear  happy,  and  nothing  can 
fall  out  contrary  to  its  wishes.  Stoical  insensi- 
bility fell  far  short  of  Christian  fortitude,  for 
to  walk  in  the  narrow  way  and  do  our  best, 
humbly  acknowledging  our  failure,  rejoicing  in 
hope,  and  aiming  at  perfection,  appeared  to  the 
Greeks,  including  Epictetus,  foolishness. 

Though  the  Stoics  carried  their  logic  to 
such  a  degree   of  subtlety  as    rendered   their 


io6  A    WOMAN    OF 

reasoning  incoherent  and  perplexed,  they  held 
that  there  is  one  God,  incorruptible,  unorigi- 
nated,  immortal,  rational,  perfect  in  intelligence 
and  happiness,  unsusceptible  of  all  evil,  govern- 
ing the  world  and  everything  in  it,  the  Creator 
of  the  universe  and  Father  of  all,  though  not 
of  human  form  ;  and  those  authors  who  repre- 
sent them  as  little  better  than  atheists  do  them 
great  injustice.     They  believed  in  the  eternity 
of  matter,  but  that  it  was  reduced  into  form 
by  God  ;  and  that  the  world  was  made,  and  is 
continually  governed,  by  Him.     They  were  the 
most  zealous  defenders  of  the  doctrine  of  a 
particular  Providence,  and  utterly  rejected  the 
notion   of  chance.     By  Fate  they  understood 
the  events  appointed  by  the  immutable  counsels 
of  God.     Cicero  allows  that  Chrysippus,  whose 
eloquence,  it  was  said,  the  speech  of  the  gods 
must  resemble,  endeavoured  to  reconcile  Fate 
with   Free   Will.     God's   own   eternal   Will   is 
His   Law;    that   He  cannot   change,    because 
He  always  ordains  what  is  best.     As  Fate  is 
no  more  than    a   connected   series   of  causes, 
God  is  the  first  Original  Cause,  on  which  all 
the  rest  depend.     On  the  subject  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  the  Stoics  were  confused 
and    uncertain.      Plato    held    that   it    is    as    a 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  107 

punishment  that  the  soul  is  united  to  the  body, 
and  buried  in  it  as  in  a  tomb.  After  its  libe- 
ration it  takes  its  essence  in  the  ether,  and 
becomes  immortal  and  Divine. 

That  a  good  man  stretched  on  a  rack  or 
reposing  on  a  bed  of  roses  should  enjoy  himself 
equally,  was  a  doctrine  that  gained  few  prose- 
lytes, and  drove  many  disciples  from  the  thorny 
asperities  of  the  painted  Portico,  where  Zeno 
opened  his  school,  to  the  flowery  gardens  of 
Epicurus. 

Few  could  attain  to  the  spirit  of  the  epi- 
taph of  the  emancipated  slave  : 

'  I,  Epictetus,  was  a  slave,  and  ailing  in  body. 
But  poor  as  I  was,  yet  dear  to  the  Immortals.' 

The  doctrine  of  virtue  being  its  own  reward 
could  not  safeguard  them  from  sufferings  en- 
tailed by  the  follies  and  wrong-doings  of  others. 
Though  Mrs.  Carter  had  learnt  from  Epic- 
tetus to  talk  of  the  headache  as  if  it  were  no 
evil,  her  friend  Mrs.  Chapone  would  have  felt 
greater  respect  for  that  philosopher  if  she  could 
furnish  a  receipt  to  prevent  one  suffering  any 
pain  from  the  faults  and  follies  of  those  with 
whom  we  are  connected.  Failing  this,  she 
held  Mrs.  Carter's  stoical  airs  and  all  such  stuff 


io8  A  WOMAN    OF 

in  mortal  contempt,  and  was  not  at  all  com- 
forted by  her  jargon. 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  no  sect  of  philo- 
sophers was  suicide  so  frequently  committed  as 
among  the  Stoics  ;  whereby  they  contradicted 
their  noble  precepts  of  submission  to  the  Divine 
Will.  Zeno  hanged  himself  when  his  finger 
ached. 

They  allowed  the  duty  of  praise  and  thanks- 
giving for  Divine  assistance  in  moral  improve- 
ments, but  they  knew  no  repentance  of  their 
failings. 

Socrates,  who  had  of  all  mankind  the  fairest 
claim  to  be  an  instructor  and  reformer  of  the 
world,  confessed  that  he  knew  nothing,  and 
acknowledged  the  want,  of  a  superior  Guide. 
There  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  Epictetus  in 
which  he  represents  it  as  the  office  of  God,  or 
of  one  deputed  by  Him,  to  appear  among  man- 
kind as  a  Teacher  and  Example. 

Mrs.  Carter  thought  Epictetus  inferior  to 
Socrates,  but  saw  no  reason  to  reduce  him  to 
the  level  of  modern  heathen  like  Lord  Boling- 
broke,  who  treated  Plato  and  St.  Paul  with 
equal  virulence,  being  opposed  to  all  that  was 
good  in  either  Christians  or  heathen. 

She  had  more  pleasure  in  reading    Plato, 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  109 

and  other  philosophers  who  wrote  before  our 
Saviour,  than  Epictetus,  Marcus  AureHus 
Antoninus,  and  those  that  Hved  after ;  the  re- 
markable difference  in  the  clearness  of  whose 
notions  show  that  they  must  have  borrowed 
their  best  lights  from  the  Christian  religion. 

Like  her  friend,  Miss  Talbot,  with  whom 
she  often  corresponded  on  this  subject,  she  was 
more  willing  to  believe  that  Epictetus  had 
never  read  the  New  Testament,  than  that, 
having  read  it,  he  should  have  remained  un- 
converted. Had  he  not  been  dazzled  with 
the  little  light  he  had,  and  too  well  satisfied 
that  he  himself  was  a  luminous  body  from 
whence  it  proceeded,  he  would  have  sought 
for  the  true  sunshine,  and  seeking  would  have 
found  it. 

Mrs.  Carter  was  very  partial  to  Plato,  and 
thought  he  wanted  nothing  but  the  help  of 
Divine  Revelation,  which  he  longed  for,  and 
knew  was  to  come.  He  foretold,  as  Grotius 
expresses  it,  that  in  order  that  a  truly  righteous 
man  should  be  manifested,  it  was  necessary 
that  his  virtue  should  be  despoiled  of  all  its 
ornaments,  so  that  he  should  be  considered  by 
others  as  a  malefactor  ('  numbered  amongst  the 
transgressors '),    be    derided,    and    at    last    be 


no  A    WOMAN    OF 

hanged  {suspendatur,  Grot.  '  De  Verit.'  lib.  Iv.). 
So  likewise  he  says  that  Socrates  told  Alci- 
biades  that,  in  proper  time,  a  Divine  person 
would  come  into  the  world,  who  out  of  his  care 
and  tender  regard  to  mankind,  would  remove 
all  doubts,  disperse  all  darkness,  and  fully  in- 
struct them  how  to  present  their  prayers, 
praises,  and  religious  offerings  to  the  Supreme 
Being  in  a  pure  and  acceptable  manner.  (Alci- 
biad  II,'  as  cited  by  Blackwall,  '  Sacred  Classics,' 
vol.  ii.  p.  III.) 

The  cruelty  of  the  Athenians  proved  that 
something  more  than  the  illumination  of  specu- 
lation, reason,  and  the  fine  arts  is  necessary  to 
dispel  the  darkness  of  disordered  principles  and 
tame  the  savage  outbreak  of  passions. 

The  whole  heathen  system  of  augury,  divi- 
nation, oracles,  &c.,  arose  from  the  universal 
want  felt  for  some  Divine  assistance,  and  the 
insufficiency  of  the  soul  to  its  own  virtue  and 
happiness.  How  unlike  the  soi-disant  philo- 
sophers of  Edinburgh  and  Paris  was  that 
distinguished  ornament  of  polished  Greece, 
Xenophon,  one  of  the  greatest  generals  and 
most  illustrious  philosophers  in  all  heathen 
antiquity.  He  carefully  sought  his  way  through 
clouds   and  darkness ;   they,   on    the    contrary. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  m 

shut  their  eyes  against  the  Divine  illumination 
which  brightened  all  around  them. 

The  most  hopeless  people  to  convince  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity  Mrs.  Carter  found  to 
be  amongst  those  of  vacant  life,  reasoning- — 
not  reasonable — heads,  and  regular  conduct ; 
too  highly  conceited  of  human  understanding 
to  think  it  needs  any  assistance,  and  too  well 
satisfied  with  human  virtue  to  think  it  wants 
any  forgiveness.  '  Seest  thou  a  man  wise  in 
his  own  conceit  ?  There  is  more  hope  of  a  fool 
than  of  him.' 

She  thought  there  was  something  so  grovel- 
ling and  base,  so  unworthy  of  an  intelligent 
being,  in  the  endeavour  of  levelling  itself  to  the 
condition  of  a  mere  clod.  David  Hume  wrote 
in  favour  of  suicide,  unmoved  with  horror  at 
the  mischief  produced  by  such  a  doctrine.  The 
distraction  of  those  unhappy  families  in  which 
such  a  dreadful  accident  has  ever  happened 
might  have  checked  the  pen  of  a  demon ;  and 
Voltaire's  verses  attempted  to  destroy  the  only 
hope  which  makes  life  supportable,  for  no- 
thing can  give  real  delight  unless  connected 
with  immortal  ideas.  To  those  who  complained 
to  Epictetus  that  they  could  no  longer  endure 
being  bound  to  the  body,  and  cried,  '  Did  we 


112  A    WOMAN    OF 

not  come  from  God  ?  Allow  us  to  depart  to  the 
place  from  which  we  came,'  he  would  answer, 
*  Friends,  wait  for  God  :  when  He  shall  give 
the  signal  to  release  you  from  His  service,  then 
go  to  Him  ;  but  for  the  present  dwell  in  the 
place  where  He  has  put  you.  Short  indeed  is 
the  time  of  your  dwelling  here.' 

Miss  Talbot  thought  many  people  would 
study  Mrs.  Carter's  translation  who  would 
scorn  to  look  into  a  Bible ;  fine  gentlemen 
would  read  it  because  it  was  new ;  fine  ladies 
because  it  was  Mrs.  Carter's  ;  critics  because 
it  was  a  translation  out  of  the  Greek  ;  and 
Shaftesburian  heathen  because  Epictetus  was 
an  honour  to  heathenism  and  an  idolater  of  the 
beauty  of  virtue. 

The  work  sold  so  well,  and  the  price  kept  up 
so  remarkably  that,  some  years  after.  Archbishop 
Seeker  brought  her  a  booksellers'  catalogue, 
saying,  *  Here,  Madam  Carter,  see  how  ill  I 
am  used  by  the  world  ;  here  are  my  sermons 
selling  at  half-price,  while  your  Epictetus  truly 
is  not  to  be  had  under  eighteen  shillings  ;  three 
shillings  less  than  the  original  subscription.' 

After  the  publication  of  her  '  Epictetus ' 
Mrs.  Carter  became  wholly  independent  of  her 
father,  and  she  was  enabled  to  spend  several 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  113 

months  every  winter  in  London.  No.  20 
Clarges  Street,  where  she  had  rooms  for  many 
years  on  the  first  floor,  was  next  door  to  the 
house,  No.  21,  where  she  eventually  died. 
Clarges  Street  had  been  built  in  17 17,  the 
year  of  Mrs.  Carter's  birth,  on  the  site  of 
Clarges  House,  a  property  owned  by  the  family 
of  Anne  Clarges,  wife  of  General  Monk,  Duke 
of  Albemarle.  Mrs.  Carter  had  as  neighbours 
the  distinguished  Admiral,  Lord  St.  Vincent, 
and  Charles  James  Fox,  and  at  No.  11,  Emma, 
Lady  Hamilton,  is  believed  to  have  resided. 
Later  on  Edmund  Kean  occupied  No.  12. 
A  turnpike  that  stood  at  the  corner  of  Picca- 
dilly was  abolished  in  1761.  Boswell  enter- 
tained Dr.  Johnson  hard  by,  in  Half  Moon 
Street. 

In  1762  Mrs.  Carter's  establishment  at 
Deal  was  also  put  on  a  different  footing.  Her 
brothers  and  sister  were  all  married,  and  her 
stepmother  was  dead.  She  therefore  bought 
a  house  for  herself  at  the  southern  extremity 
of  the  town,  commanding  a  view  both  of  the 
country  and  the  sea,  where  her  father  lived 
with  her.  Her  friends  lamented  that  her 
talents  should  be  wasted  on  the  daily  round  of 
domestic  economy,  but  she  said  with  her  usual 

I 


114  A    WOMAN    OF 

good  sense  that,  though  she  must  be  more 
confined  at  home  and  less  at  the  disposal  of  her 
friends  than  when  her  sister,  Mrs.  Douglas, 
supplied  her  place,  she  had  no  idea  of  its  hurt- 
ing the  dignity  of  her  head,  for  the  true  post  of 
honour  consists  in  the  discharge  of  those  duties 
which  arise  from  that  situation  in  which  Provi- 
dence has  fixed  us. 

She  presided  over  the  cookery,  despatched  a 
deal  of  plain  work,  and  read  a  world  of  Greek. 
When  pressed  by  Archbishop  Seeker  to  add  a 
Life  of  Epictetus  to  her  translation  of  his  works, 
she  replied,  *  Whoever  that  somebody  or  other 
is  who  is  to  write  the  Life  of  Epictetus,  seeing 
I  have  a  dozen  shirts  to  make,  I  do  opine  that 
it  cannot  be  I.' 

Shirt-making  was  not  naturally  congenial 
to  her,  and  when  she  had  been  working  her 
eyes  out,  she  resolved  that  if  she  were  ever 
blessed  with  a  family  of  boys,  they  should  learn 
to  make  their  own. 

Mrs.  Chapone,  who  pronounced  Mrs.  Carter 
to  be  the  first  of  women,  the  truest  philosopher, 
and  one  of  the  best  Christians  she  ever  knew, 
not  only  in  word  but  in  action,  said  her  great 
and  good  character  was  most  appreciated  by 
those  familiar  with  her.     She  was  thought  by 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  115 

many  of  her  admiring  acquaintance  to  be  buried 
at  Deal,  yet  that  was  the  place  where  she  most 
shone.  The  applause  of  the  world  was  not  the 
end  or  motive  of  any  of  her  attainments,  and 
she  enjoyed  her  position  as  much  as  many  of 
her  friends  regretted  it  for  her.  Failure  in 
such  homely  abilities  as  the  science  of  pud- 
dings only  proved  an  incentive  that  eventually 
caused  her  to  excel.  She  wrote  to  Miss  Tal- 
bot :  '  One  would  think  you  had  a  mind  to 
insult  me  upon  a  misfortune  that  happened  to 
me  some  fifteen  years  ago,  when  I  produced  a 
pudding  of  a  new  invention,  so  overcharged 
with  pepper  and  brandy  that  it  put  the  whole 
family  in  a  flame.  The  children  all  set  up  their 
little  throats  aorainst  Greek  and  Latin,  and  I 
found  this  unlucky  event  was  like  to  prove 
my  everlasting  disgrace,  for  they  made  a 
perfect  era  of  it — every  remarkable  thing  was 
sure  to  happen  on  the  day  ''my  sister  made 
the  brandy  pudding''  So,  to  stop  their  clamour, 
I  happily  applied  myself  to  the  forming  a 
special  good  sweet  cake,  with  such  success 
that  the  former  mishap  was  forgot,  and  I  was 
employed  to  make  every  christening  cake 
that  happened  in  the  family  ever  after.      And 

though  I  say  it,  that  should  not  say  it,  several 

I  2 


ii6  A    WOMAN    OF 

grave,  notable  gentlewomen  of  unquestionable 
good  housewifery  have  applied  to  me  for  the 
receipt.  I  hope  you  will  not  infer  that  I  am 
fond  of  brandy,  for  I  put  it  in  out  of  pure  good 
management  to  save  milk.' 

Mrs.  Carter  and  her  father  seldom  met 
except  at  meals  :  each  had  a  separate  library 
and  apartment ;  this  continued  till  his  death  in 
1774,  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven.  To  the  last 
he  composed  a  sermon  with  the  same  per- 
spicuity and  force  as  at  forty.  She  suffered 
much  anxiety  when  he  insisted  on  mounting  a 
ladder  to  prune  his  vines,  for  to  those  advanced 
in  years,  and  unaccustomed  to  gymnastics, 
she  considered  it  hazardous,  and  saving  a  few 
shillings  was  not  worth  the  risk  of  giving  pain 
to  his  family.  Some  years  previously  she 
seems  to  have  entertained  hopes  of  welcoming 
yet  another  stepmother,  and  of  thus  being 
relieved  of  her  home  duties  ;  she  wrote  :  *  Well, 
at  length  my  father  is  arrived  from    London, 

and    mayhap .      There    are    some    misses 

coming  in  all  possible  expedition  to  spend  some 
time  at  Deal.  ...  A  journey  to  London,  if  I 
live  and  prosper,  in  spite  of  the  misses  I  shall 
have.  My  father  has  been  so  good  as  to 
propose  my  taking  a  lodging.  ...     He  will 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  117 

soon  be  in  London  and  fix  on  a  place  for  me 
in  the  environs  of  St,  Paul's.' 

The  visit  of  the  misses,  if  it  ever  took  place, 
proved  to  be  void  of  significance,  and  Mrs. 
Carter  continued  doing  her  duty  to  her  father 
as  far  as  her  aching  head  would  allow  her. 

The  premises  which  Mrs.  Carter  had  pur- 
chased at  Deal  consisted  of  several  adjoining 
tenements,  held  under  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, but  by  different  leases  ;  she  wished, 
therefore,  to  have  them  all  inserted  in  one 
lease.  Archbishop  Seeker  granted  her  request, 
and  wrote  : 

'  Madam  Carter, — I  am  glad  to  find  that 
you  are  so  prudent.  And  now  it  is  my  turn  to 
show  that  I  am  prudent  too.  As  you  will  save 
money  by  the  re-union  of  four  houses,  I  can 
the  better  whip  you  up  in  your  fine,  especially 
as  I  hear  you  like  your  house.  Letting  me 
know  that,  was  not  quite  so  discreet.  But  the 
wisest  in  their  generation  did  not  become  so  at 
once. 

'  Under  so  able  a  master  [Lord  Bath]  as 
you  have  had  for  some  months  past,  I  do  not 
doubt  but  you  will  come  on  apace.  And  who 
knows  how  much  a  few  instances  of  gude 
economy    may    contribute    to    bring    about    a 


ii8  A    WOMAN    OF 

certain  great  event  that  hath  been  long  de- 
pending.' 

In  this  letter  the  Archbishop,  alluding  to 
the  report  that  Lord  Bath  would  marry  Mrs. 
Carter,  permits  himself  a  few  malicious  insinua- 
tions as  to  his  reported  love  of  money,  against 
which  Mrs.  Carter  had  always  so  ably  defended 
her  friend. 

The  Archbishop,  however,  when  it  came 
to  business,  acted  very  generously  to  his  old 
friend,  and  when  her  lease  was  renewed  he 
would  take  nothing  for  it,  and  sent  her  word 
that,  as  her  fine  did  not  satisfy  him,  he  would 
not  receive  it,  and  meant  to  keep  it  in  his 
power  to  arrest  her  until  she  could  tender  him 
legal  payment  ;  to  which  she  replied  that  her 
only  comfort  was  that  if  he  screwed  her  up  till 
she  broke  nobody  would  be  so  great  a  loser  by 
her  bankruptcy  as  he. 

One  day,  when  staying  at  Lambeth,  Mrs. 
Carter  complained  to  the  Archbishop  of  the 
unfair  manner  in  which  our  translators,  for  the 
evident  purpose  of  supporting  the  superiority 
of  the  husband,  have  translated  the  same  Greek 
verb  differently.  '  If  any  brother  hath  a  wife 
that  believeth  not,  and  she  be  pleased  to  dwell 
with  him,  let  him  not  put  her  away.     And  a 


WIT    AND    WISDOM      *      119 

woman  which  hath  a  husband  that  believeth 
not,  and  if  he  be  pleased  to  dwell  with  her,  let 
her  not  leave  him!  The  Archbishop  denied 
the  fact,  and  asserted  that  the  word  in  the 
original  was  not  the  same,  but  finding  his 
antagonist  obstinate,  said,  *  Come  with  me, 
Madam  Carter,  to  my  study,  and  be  confuted  ; ' 
they  went,  and  his  Grace,  instead  of  being 
angry  when  he  was  proved  to  be  wrong,  said 
good-humouredly,  '  No,  Madam  Carter,  'tis  I 
that  must  be  confuted,  and  you  are  right.' 
Granting,  however,  that  the  home  belongs  to 
the  husband,  the  translators  were  surely  justi- 
fied in  accentuating  the  difference  between 
leaving  and  being  turned  out. 

Archbishop  Seeker  appointed  Mrs.  Carter's 
brother-in-law  one  of  his  chaplains,  and  to  the 
end  of  her  days  his  kindness  followed  her,  even 
after  he  was  himself  long  since  dead.  In  1798 
Bishop  Porteous,  of  London,  in  presenting  a 
living  to  her  nephew,  wrote  : 

'  Although  you  and  I  have  long  been  very 
good  friends,  I  don't  think  I  ever  had  the  gal- 
lantry to  present  you  with  a  New  Year's  gift. 
I  now  wish  to  mend  my  manners,  and  as  we 
are  both  of  us  a  little  past  our  prime,  it  would 
not  suit  either  of  us  to  wait  very  long  for  any- 


I20  A    WOMAN    OF 

thing.  I  will  therefore  enter  upon  a  new  course 
(as  all  penitents  ought  to  do)  without  delay, 
and  will  in  one  respect  at  least  begin  the  New 
Year  well  by  desiring  you  to  accept,  as  a  New 
Year's  Gift,  the  living  of  Thorley,  in  Hertford- 
shire, for  your  nephew,  Mr.  Pennington.  In 
offering  you  this  benefice,  I  have  the  great 
pleasure  of  testifying  my  regard  for  a  most 
excellent  lady,  whose  talents,  learning,  and 
piety  are  an  honour  to  her  sex  and  the  age  in 
which  she  lives ;  and  who  is  the  oldest  and 
most  intimate  friend  of  my  revered  patron, 
Archbishop  Seeker,  who,  were  he  now  living, 
would  not  be  displeased  with  this  mark  of  my 
attention  to  one  whom  he  most  highly  esteemed 
and  loved.' 

Mrs.  Carter  wrote  a  poem  on  the  death  of 
Queen  Caroline,  wife  of  George  II.  (Caroline 
the  Illustrious),  which  was  presented  to  the  King 
by  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  and  in  Coxe's  '  Life 
of  Walpole  '  it  has  been  erroneously  ascribed 
to  Lord  Melcombe.  Richardson  inserted  her 
'  Ode  to  Wisdom '  in  his  '  Clarissa '  without 
her  permission.  She  complained ;  he  apolo- 
gised, and  explained  that,  as  the  ode  had  been 
shown  to  him  as  written  by  a  lady,  he  had 
inserted  it  to  enliven  a  work  that  was  written 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  121 

with  the  intention  of  doing  honour  to  the  sex 
to  the  best  of  his  poor  abihties.  '  Clarissa '  was 
translated  into  Dutch  in  1752,  and  with  it  the 
'  Ode  to  Wisdom.' 

She  was  a  great  admirer  of  Richardson's 
works,  and  believed  that  he  was  determined  to 
be  revenged  on  the  people  who  thought  him  too 
prolix,  by  a  judicious  conclusion  that  left  them 
longing  to  learn  how  Clementina  was  disposed 
of,  and  made  them  wish  the  book  still  longer. 

Elizabeth  Carter's  fame  spread  to  the  Con- 
tinent.    In    1739,  at   the   age    of  twenty-two, 
with    her    father's    consent,    she    commenced 
a   literary  correspondence  with  Jean    Philippe 
Baratier,  that  youthful  prodigy  of  learning,  who 
was  three  years  her  junior.     He  wrote  several 
works   of  theology  and   ecclesiastical    history, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Academy  of  Science 
at  Berlin  when  he  was  fourteen,   and  died  in 
1740,  aged  nineteen.     His  father  was  a  French 
Huguenot  who   settled  in    Germany,   and  his 
mother  was  a  Prussian,  so  he  possessed  the  great 
advantage  of  two  nationalities.     His  letters  to 
Elizabeth  Carter  expressed  an  effusive  admira- 
tion, that  must  have  rather  astonished  his  mat- 
ter-of-fact   correspondent.      He  was    mortified, 
he  said,  at  not  even  seeing  her  portrait,  and 


122  A    WOMAN    OF 

knew  not  if  she  were  a  fair  or  brown  beauty. 
Her  actual  presence  he  feared  would  be 
dangerous,  but  he  hoped  she  was  not  tall,  as, 
being  small  himself,  he  found  many  perfections 
in  short  stature.  The  Latin  epigram,  written 
by  *  La  nymphe  Elize,'  he  declared  filled  him 
with  envy,  and  Heaven  knew  if  he  would  not 
end  by  hating  her  cordially.  No  doubt  she 
had  stolen  her  verses  from  Apollo,  and  passed 
them  off  as  her  own,  but  '  a  nymph  of  her 
merit '  was  one  of  the  most  dangerous  creatures 
under  Heaven,  for  she  might  with  four  lines 
wound  a  man  in  Pekin.  For  his  own  part,  he 
said,  he  preferred  Chinese  to  Latin,  in  which 
perhaps  he  was  wise,  as  in  that  language  at 
least  his  fair  competitor  was  out  of  her  depth. 
In  his  determination  to  learn  English  he  worked 
like  a  horse,  or  rather,  like  an  author  compiling 
his  own  index.  One  of  his  sentences  indeed 
appeared  to  him  to  be  so  long  and  involved  as 
to  be  almost  English.  *  Car  vous  faites  des 
affreuses  periodes,  vous  autres.  Anglais  ;  je  m'y 
perds,  j'y  suffoque,  et  quel  tourment  pour  un 
Frangais.'  He  sent  her  a  copy  of  his  History 
of  the  first  Bishops  of  Rome,  but  added  '  n'allez 
pas  me  jouer  le  tour  de  le  lire.'  Like  Dr.  John- 
son, he  thought  that  books  presented  by  the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  123 

author  are  less  read  and  valued  than  if  the 
reader  has  been  at  some  pains  to  acquire  them 
himself.  This  promising  young  life  was  cut 
short  the  following  year. 

The  Empress  Catherine  expressed  high  ad- 
miration of  Mrs.  Carter's  translation  of  Epicte- 
tus,  and  in  Russia,  where  Mrs.  Carter  said  the 
people  were  just  learning  to  walk  on  their  hind 
legs,  there  appeared  in  the  '  Sotschinenie  :  ou 
Melanges  de  Litterature  en  Russe,  pour  le  mois 
de  Mai,  1758': 

'  Anecdotes  au  Sujet  dune  savante  Fille  en 
Ano-leterre,  Mademoiselle  Elizabeth  Carter, 
qui  vient  de  donner  au  public  une  belle  traduc- 
tion en  Anglais  de  tousles  ouvrages  d'Epictete. 
Elle  est  fille  de  Nicholas  Carter,  Docteur  en 
Th^ologie,  etabli  a  Deal,  ville  maritime,  dans 
le  Comte  de  Kent.  Cet  ecclesiastique,  homme 
de  beaucoup  de  piete  et  d'erudition,  remarquant 
dans  sa  fille  de  tres  heureuses  dispositions,  reso- 
lut  de  ne  rien  negliger  de  ce  qui  pourrait  con- 
tribuer  a  son  education.  Mais,  craignant  avec 
raison  que  ces  avantages  ne  produisissent  en 
elle  une  sotte  vanite,  il  s'appliqua  a  lui  inspirer 
des  sentiments  d'humanit6  et  de  modestie,  et 
surtout  une  pi6te  eclairee  et  solide. 

'  Mademoiselle  Carter  possede  le  Latin,  le 


124  A    WOMAN    OF 

Grec,  I'Anglois,  le  Frangois,  I'ltalien  et  I'Espa- 
gnol ;  et  elle  lit  I'Hebreu  et  rAllemand.  Elle 
serait  trop  accomplie,  si  a  toutes  ces  qualit^s 
etait  joint  un  exterieur  egalement  parfait 
(quoiqu'elle  soit  assez  agreable)  avec  de  plus 
grands  avantages  du  cote  de  la  fortune.  Mais 
son  temperament,  son  goiit  pour  la  simplicite, 
et  enfin  une  philosophie  soutenue  et  epuree  par 
la  religion,  lui  font  presque  regarder  toutes  ces 
choses  d'un  ceil  de  Stoique. 

'  SO"'^  de  Mai  1758.' 

Elizabeth  Carter  was  not  ambitious  to  attain 
fame  by  affecting  new  discoveries  in  religion 
or  morals,  but  her  sound  principles  were  the 
result  of  research  and  conviction,  and  secured 
her  own  happiness,  while  it  added  to  that  of  her 
fellow-creatures. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  125 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOCIETY 

Mrs.  Carter  equally  condemned  a  life  passed 
in  perpetual  society  or  in  perpetual  solitude. 
Social  pleasures  at  proper  intervals  stimulated 
her  mind  and  spirits,  but  she  wearied  of  con- 
stant dissipation,  and  home  alone  presented  the 
joyful  means  of  rest  and  recreation.  Variety, 
she  considered,  is  best  adapted  to  the  human 
mind  during  its  life  of  probation.  Only  as  a 
rest  from  work  can  repose  be  enjoyed.  Queen 
Elizabeth  acknowledged  two  methods  of  bring- 
ing our  years  to  an  end,  '  wearing  out '  and 
'  rusting  out,'  but  those  who  neither  know  how 
to  work  nor  how  to  rest  contrive  to  do  both, 
and  that  very  rapidly.  They  loiter  through  the 
day  in  a  purposeless  activity,  and  boast  that  they 
never  rest.  Their  weeks,  like  their  days,  are 
unbroken  by  the  alternate  work  and  rest  ap- 
pointed to  man,  and  if,  after  having  transgressed 


126  A    WOMAN    OF 

the  law  of  work  for  six  days,  they  attempt  to  rest 
for  conscience'  sake  on  the  seventh,  they  find  it 
very  dull.  It  was  not  made  for  the  unemployed. 
If  circumstances,  said  Epictetus,  make  it  neces- 
sary for  us  to  live  alone,  we  should  enjoy  tran- 
quillity and  freedom,  and  not  complain  of  soli- 
tude. If  we  find  ourselves  in  a  crowd  we 
should  cheerfully  endure  the  trouble  and  un- 
easiness, and  not  treat  our  neighbours  as  knaves 
and  robbers.  We  cannot  escape  from  men, 
nor  can  we  change  them,  so  we  should  regard 
an  assembly  of  them  as  a  festival.  At  times 
God  wills  that  we  should  be  at  leisure  to  medi- 
tate, write,  read,  hear,  and  prepare  ourselves. 
When  we  have  had  sufficient  time  He  says, 
'  Come  to  the  contest ;  now  is  the  opportunity 
for  you  to  prove  whether  you  are  worthy  of 
victory,  or  whether  you  are  among  those  who 
go  about  the  world  defeated.'  No  contest  is 
without  confusion,  and  some  will  plead  that 
their  only  desire  is  to  live  quietly.  To  such 
weak,  discontented  folk,  who  dishonour  God's 
summons,  Epictetus  answers  contemptuously, 
'  Lament,  then,  and  groan  as  you  deserve  to  do, 
be  grieved,  envious,  disappointed,  and  unhappy.' 
He  despises  the  impotent  wailings  of  those  who 
have  not  had    the   courage  to  take  their  part 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  127 

In  life,  and  cry  '  I  am  in  a  wretched  condition, 
master,  and  I  am  unfortunate  ;  no  man  cares 
for  me,  no  man  gives  me  anything,  all  blame 
me,  all  speak  ill  of  me.' 

In  her  youth,  Mrs.  Carter  would  not  have 
chosen  to  live  year  after  year  upon  the  same 
spot,  in  the  same  contracted  circle,  had  It  been 
in  her  power  to  do  otherwise.  She  thought  it 
important  to  mix  now  and  then  in  the  hurry  of 
society,  in  order  to  keep  up  with  the  '  universal 
community  of  mankind,'  to  enlarge  and  vary 
her  ideas,  and  thus  become  more  useful  and 
agreeable  to  those  v/ith  whom  she  lived  than  it 
is  possible  to  be  if  leading  an  absolutely  regular 
clockwork  life,  always  moved  by  the  same 
springs  and  perpetually  striking  the  same  note. 
The  wisest  and  best  of  the  human  race  must 
sometimes  need  to  be  diverted  from  their  own 
thoughts  and  feelings  ;  and  in  town  opportuni- 
ties are  every  hour  at  hand.  Those  refined 
and  cultivated  minds  that  depend  little  on 
external  entertainment  are  liable  to  despise  the 
amusements  that  are  necessary  to  keep  others 
in  good  humour.  There  is  a  danger  of  their 
becoming  '  odd,  out-of-the-way  people  to  whom 
the  important  affair  of  a  masquerade  is  a 
grievous  task,  nothing  but  good  sense,  and  true 


128  A    WOMAN    OF 

purposes  of  living  an  amusement,  and  all  the 
gay  bagatelles  of  folly,  immense  labour,  and 
vexation  of  spirit.'  Feeling  no  want  them- 
selves, such  minds  may  be  disappointed  not  to 
find  in  the  generality  of  mankind  the  reasonable 
intelligence  that  belongs  to  very  few.  Conse- 
quently those  who  might  elevate  society  are 
often  inclined  to  run  away  from  it.  *  After  all,' 
she  concludes,  '  the  men  and  women  of  this 
world  must  have  their  rattles  and  their  play- 
things, and  the  only  way  people  of  superior 
talents  can  hope  to  make  them  wiser  and  better 
is  by  condescending  to  play  with  them.  Re- 
member that  Socrates  and  Plato  frequented  all 
the  routs,  visiting  rooms  and  raree-shows  in 
Athens,  or  they  would  never  have  gained  so 
many  proselytes  to  virtue,'  Socrates  even 
learnt  to  dance  at  an  advanced  age. 

The  pleasures  of  a  '  volatile  head  '  are  at 
any  rate  much  less  liable  to  disappointment 
than  those  of  a  '  sensible  heart.'  For  such  as 
can  be  contented  with  rattles  and  raree-shows 
there  are  rattles  and  raree-shows  in  abundance, 
and  when  one  is  broken,  it  is  mighty  easily  re- 
placed by  another. 

Though  Mrs.  Carter  had  a  strange,  stubborn, 
constitutional    disposition    to    be   pleased    that 


Cy  Cr//'^'  /■    -/^>//^'  A^/l/- 


BOUK-1'LATE    OF    ELIZABKTH    (.  AKTER 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  129 

made  her  sociable  and  tolerant,  she  suffered  all 
her  life  from  weak  nerves  and  fluttering  pulses, 
constitutional  evils,  for  which  she  foresaw  no 
cure  but  in  the  regions  of  immortality.  Her 
shyness  aggravated  by  short  sight  made  it  im- 
possible, she  complained,  to  divest  herself  of 
her  idiot  look,  though  self-control  enabled  her 
to  enter  a  room  with  '  a  very  graceful  intrepidity.' 
With  an  aching  head  and  twitching  limbs,  she 
went  about  the  world  active,  useful,  cheerful, 
and  thankful,  and  showed  none  of  those  sym- 
ptoms of  bad  nerves,  well  described  as  a  '  term 
one  is  pleased  to  give  to  the  indulgence  of  ill 
humour  that  disgraces  one's  best  principles, 
ofrieves  one's  best  friends,  and  makes  one's 
whole  being  ungrateful.  A  disposition  that, 
though  troublesome  and  teasing  to  others,  so 
scratches  and  tears  the  poor  owner,  that  it  is 
more  worthy  our  compassion  than  we  are  will- 
ing to  allow.'  The  most  nervous  people  fre- 
quently appear  the  most  composed,  and  sudden 
fear  only  makes  them  calmer.  They  have 
learnt  to  exercise  that  self-control,  without 
which  they  would  be  like  the  Roman,  described 
by  Epictetus,  who  wrapped  up  his  head  when 
his  favourite  horse  was  running,  and  when,  con- 
trary to  his  fears,  it  won,  the  revulsion  of  his 

K 


130  A    WOMAN    OF 

feelings  was  so  strong  that  sponges  were 
required  to  recover  him  from  a  fainting  fit. 
Housebreakers,  Dr.  Johnson  allowed,  may  have 
just  cause  for  fear,  as  they  may  be  '  shot  get- 
ting into  a  house,  or  hanged  when  they  get 
out  of  it,'  but  ordinary  mortals  should  control 
their  nerves. 

Though  Mrs.  Carter  might  appear  tran- 
quil, she  said,  '  people  who  make  it  a  point 
never  to  squall,  and  do  not  often  speak,  have 
nevertheless  their  feelings.'  If  she  had  not 
been  a  Christian  she  would  have  been  a  *  Stoic, 
a  metaphysician,  a  bear  and  a  wit'  When  her 
solitude  was  occasionally  turned  into  hurry  and 
company,  to  which  she  had  been  long  disused, 
she  felt  like  a  wild  thing  just  caught,  and 
doubted  if  in  her  fright  she  would  not  run  into 
holes  and  corners  like  a  wild  kitten.  In  the 
midst  of  all  these  foolish  flutters  she  wrote : 
*  I  bless  myself  for  being  placed  in  a  situation 
which  seldom  exposes  me  to  them,  and  born  to 
a  position  neither  of  hard  labour  nor  the  equally 
fatiguing  one  of  splendid  slavery.'  None  but 
those  who  enjoy  it  can  have  any  idea  of  the 
comfort  of  insignificancy.  She  often  secretly 
exulted  in  the  privilege  of  being  suffered  to 
go  in  and  out  of  a  room  with  as  much  silence 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  131 

and  as  little  ceremony  as  a  cat,  while  people  of 
more  consequence  were  kept  at  a  distance  by 
the  forms  and  fashions  of  this  world,  and  could 
only  strain  their  eyes  by  looking  at  each  other 
through  a  telescope.  Excess  of  good  house- 
wifery had  prevented  her  ever  making  use  of 
the  fan,  and  it  was  so  long  since  she  had 
appeared  without  either  a  shuttle  or  needle  in 
her  hands,  that  she  would  be  utterly  at  a  loss 
what  to  do  with  them,  and  in  her  perplexity, 
regardless  how  she  disposed  of  her  feet,  she 
would  infallibly  tumble  over  her  nose.  Miss 
Talbot  considered  it  her  duty  to  get  rid  of 
this  awkwardness.  '  Learn  the  exercise  of  the 
fan,'  she  said  ;  '  I  will  furnish  you  with  fan- 
mounts.' 

Unfortunately  Mrs.  Carter's  modesty  and 
straightforwardness  lessened  her  influence  in 
raising  the  general  tone  of  society.  Like  all 
shy  people  she  loved  listening  better  than  talk- 
ing. The  world  has  no  leisure  to  attend  to  the 
wisest  if  they  are  backward  and  diffident  in 
asserting  their  opinions.  Dr.  Johnson,  when 
assured  that  a  man  to  whom  he  had  just  been 
introduced  would  grow  very  entertaining  pre- 
sently, calmly  answered,  '  Sir,  I  can  wait.' 

Lady  Louisa  Stuart  tells  us  that  Mrs.  Carter 

K  2 


132  A    WOMAN    OF 

not  only  lacked  a  quick  perception  of  her 
neighbours'  absurdities,  but  was  equally  free 
from  any  desire  to  expose  them.  She  sat  still, 
honestly  admiring  what  a  livelier  but  shallower 
person  would  have  criticised  and  ridiculed. 

It  was  not  the  glitter  and  finery  of  this 
world  that  awed  Elizabeth  Carter,  for  even  at 
Deal,  where  folks  were  nearly  all  on  a  level, 
she  was  as  much  flurried  as  in  the  most 
splendid  assembly  ;  on  the  contrary,  she  was 
no  doubt  more  at  her  ease  with  well-bred 
people,  whatever  position  they  chanced  to  oc- 
cupy, as  the  best  bred  are  invariably  those 
'  who  make  the  fewest  persons  uneasy.'  Her 
head,  she  declared,  was  fortunately  a  very  un- 
important one  in  the  world  of  literature  or  busi- 
ness, so  that  it  might  act  ^  sans  consequence! 
and  with  half  a  ray  of  twilight  she  was  able  to 
pass  her  day,  resting  her  aching  head  upon  a 
pillow,  or  indulge  in  the  alleviations  of  an 
elbow-chair. 

An  occasional  visit  to  her  uncle,  a  wealthy 
silk  merchant  living  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard, 
was  her  only  experience  of  city  life  during  her 
early  years  ;  there,  panting  for  breath  in  the 
smoke  of  London,  she  read,  wrote,  sung, 
played,  hopped  and  amused  herself  as  well  as 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  133 

she  could,  and  every  afternoon  walked  as  if 
she  were  bewitched  to  keep  herself  in  health. 
Though  a  tragic  account  of  the  alteration  in 
her  size  and  complexion  might  reach  her 
friends  at  Deal,  so  that  they  would  expect  to 
see  her  as  pale  and  thin  as  Dean  Swift's 
Daphne,  she  felt  confident  that  a  month's  fresh 
sea  air  would  restore  her  to  '  the  impolite 
colouring  of  a  milkmaid.' 

She  was  carried  off  to  see  the  Royal  Society 
by  one  of  the  Fellows,  and  returned  half  choked 
with  the  venerable  dust  of  the  Arundelian 
Library.  She  was  much  entertained  with  look- 
ing over  the  old  manuscripts,  and  would  have 
been  well  pleased  to  be  locked  up  there  for  a 
week.  The  Museum  was  finely  decorated  with 
the  most  frightful  productions  in  Nature — 
spiders,  crocodiles,  rattlesnakes,  and  sea-calves. 
Then  there  were  such  rarities  as  Julius  Cesar's 
wife's  maid's  grandmother's  hat,  and  a  Lapland 
pagod,  that  had  to  be  protected  from  injuries 
from  dust  and  spiders. 

Her  translation  of  Epictetus  not  only  made 
her  independent  and  enabled  her  to  pass  every 
winter  in  lodgings  in  Clarges  Street,  but  it  was 
also  the  means  of  introducing  her  to  the  whole 
'  Army  of  Blues.'     With  Mrs.   Montagu,  their 


134  A    WOMAN    OF 

'  queen,'  she  had  been  acquainted  from  child- 
hood, as  many  of  her  early  years  had  been 
passed  at  Horton,  near  Hythe. 

*  My  London  life,'  Elizabeth  Carter  wrote, 
'  has  not  that  hurry  and  bustle  it  might  have 
if  I  was  of  more  importance.  My  insignifi- 
cance exempts  me  from  forms  and  ceremonies 
to  which  higher  situations  are  subject ;  my 
hours  pass  quietly  in  the  society  of  my  friends, 
and,  without  mixing  in  what  is  called  the  world, 
I  partake  of  that  vivacity  which  always  enlivens 
conversation  in  a  great  metropolis.'  Unfor- 
tunately she  heard  too  many  '  smart  things  '  to 
remember  any.  If  she  were  only  now  and  then 
to  discover  some  bright  thought  shooting  like 
a  star  through  the  gloom  of  a  dull  conversation 
its  singularity  would  have  struck  her  so  forcibly 
that  she  might  be  able  to  retain  it,  but  being 
constantly  in  the  midst  of  one  continued  cloud- 
less sunshine,  her  eyes  were  dazzled  and  at  a 
loss  where  to  fix  their  gaze. 

She  declined  to  stay  with  any  of  her 
friends,  as  she  said  she  must  have  somewhere 
to  rest  her  aching  head  without  giving  trouble, 
and  have  some  hours  of  the  day  to  call  her 
own.  When  merely  paying  a  visit,  she  felt 
quite  '  out  of  the  track '  of  her  proper  employ- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  135 

merits,  for  it  is  only  '  chez-soi '  that  books, 
pencils,  and  pens  are  within  reach,  and  ease 
and  convenience  she  found  nowhere  but  in  her 
own  house.  With  her  friends  she  was  drawn 
into  all  the  hurry  of  other  people's  affairs.  In 
the  universal  uproar  and  flutter,  every  room, 
closet,  corner  cupboard — nay,  the  very  bird- 
cages— seemed  full  of  people.  She  felt  like  '  a 
dog  in  a  dancing-school,'  her  brains  were  in 
an  everlasting  rotation,  and  whirled  round  so 
quick,  there  was  no  distinguishing  one  thing 
from  another.  When  up  to  her  ears  in  all  this 
trumpery  her  '  upper  room  '  was  quite  in  dis- 
order, littered  all  over  with  bits  and  ends  of 
half-formed  thoughts,  which  kept  fluttering 
about,  and  would  take  her  an  age  to  set  right 
again. 

As  for  writing,  she  found  herself  temporarily 
accommodated  with  her  mathematical  box  for 
a  '  standish,'  and  a  harpsichord  for  a  table,  but 

*  Not  the  desk  with  silver  nails, 
Nor  bureau  of  expense, 
Nor  standish  finely  gilt  avails 
To  writing  common  sense.' 

She  could  only  hope  that  her  periods  would 
run  half  as  musically  as  her  hostess's  spinet, 
but  she  feared  her  letter  would  contain  nothing 


136  A    WOMAN    OF 

but  words.     Greater  philosophy  was  required 
to  sit  calmly  down  and    pen  a  grave  epistle 
when  mortal  ears  were  enchanted  by  these  soft 
sounds,  than  to  remain  unmoved  in  the  midst 
of  earthquakes  and  inundations.     When  all  the 
world  was  gone  to  an  assembly,  she  consoled 
herself  with  the  thought  of  how  much  happier 
she  was  in  bed,   even  with  a  headache,  while 
her   friends  were   at   the   assembly,   than    she 
would  have  been  at  the  assembly  if  they  had 
been  at  home  in  bed.     On  one  of  these  occa- 
sions a  friend,  who  had  gone  to  a  ball,  pro- 
mised that  she  should  be  called  up  to  drink  tea 
with   her  when  she  returned  in  the  morning, 
but  in  the  meantime  her  repose  was  disturbed 
by  the    chimney  catching  fire.     The   hostess, 
assisted  by  two  maids,  ran  about  extinguishing 
it  with  brooms,  and  looking  like  the  witches 
in  Macbeth.     So  peace  is  not  always  ensured 
even   to  those  who  eschew  the  world.     Some- 
times at  night  she  would  write  long  letters  to 
her  friends  and  break  off  in  the  middle  of  a 
sentence  ('dear,  how  the  watchman  made  me 
jump!'),  and  she  would  conclude  '  My  candle 
is  out,  so  Good-night ! '     For  sleepless  nights 
she  had   Young's   *  Night   Thoughts,'  and  re- 
gretted there  were  not  more  than  seven  nights 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  137 

in  the  week,  unlike  the  lady  who,  when  she 
had  reached  the  fifth,  exclaimed,  '  What !  will 
that  man  have  never  done  complaining  ? ' 

Mrs.  Carter  did  not  care  for  the  pompous 
suite  of  apartments  lighted  up  for  the  joyless 
drum,  but  liked  a  number  of  large  comfortable 
rooms,  well  furnished,  and  warmed  with  good 
fires,  where  an  intelligent  circle  of  friends  met 
every  evening.  Though  she  could  perfectly 
conceive  the  joy  of  talking  to  a  thousand  people 
during  half  the  day,  she  heartily  pitied  those 
who  did  not  spend  the  other  half  '  quietly  and 
decently  in  the  sober  conversation  of  books.' 
She  never  dined  at  home,  unless  prevented  by 
illness  from  going  out.  The  chairs  and  carriages 
of  her  friends  were  always  sent  to  fetch  her  to 
dinner,  and  brought  her  back  at  ten  at  the 
latest.  Though  she  thought  it  wrong  to  debar 
people  from  '  the  comfortable  privilege  of  play- 
ing the  fool,'  she  would  have  wished  the  revival 
of  the  curfew,  so  that  any  assembly  of  folks 
out  of  their  own  habitations  after  ten  o'clock  at 
night  might  be  deemed  a  riot.  This  would 
save  many  an  aching  head,  and  perhaps,  too,  an 
aching  heart,  and  introduce  much  good  order 
and  economy  into  the  world.  For  her  own 
part,  she  fluttered  up  and  down  the  world  in 


138  A    WOMAN    OF 

the  height  of  good  spirits,  which  she  never 
lavished  away  by  keeping  '  bad  hours,'  for 
except  on  pubHc  occasions  ten  o'clock  was  her 
invariable  rule. 

Though  the  season  broke  up  towards  the 
end  of  May,  Mrs.  Carter  declared  that  winter 
in  London  lasted  till  July,  but  then,  she  added, 
you  have  the  comfort  of  spending  it  among 
creatures  of  your  own  species  and  in  your  own 
way,  while  the  rest  of  the  world  are  catching 
cold  in  the  country  by  fancying  that  June  and 
July  must  be  summer.  In  the  country  no  one 
appreciated  the  blessing  of  a  fine  day  more 
than  she  did.  A  French  philosopher,  in  the 
short  compass  of  ninety  pages,  had  accurately 
demonstrated  that  the  weather  which  is  par- 
ticularly favourable  to  the  growth  of  cabbages 
is  downright  poison  to  the  human  genius,  but 
in  town  she  considered  fair  weather  *  no  other- 
wise '  than  as  a  matter  of  convenience  to  keep 
her  out  of  the  dirt.  From  any  other  view  one 
day  in  the  city  was  just  as  good  as  another. 

She  sometimes  visited  the  moon  and  stars 
at  Lambeth,  where  they  were  rather  more 
visible  than  in  the  smoke  of  London,  but  even 
there  the  atmosphere  was  very  different  from 
that  of  the  country. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  139 

Mrs.  Carter  did  not  agree  with  her  friend, 
Miss  Talbot,  who  complained  that  there  was  an 
enchantment  in  the  air  of  London  which  made 
people  avoid  each  other  the  moment  they  found 
themselves  in  that  vile  place,  who  previously 
had  been  wishing  above  all  things  to  meet,  and 
that  those  happy  hours  spent  with  agreeable 
friends  in  all  the  ease  and  freedom  of  familiar 
intercourse,  not  on  trifles  such  as  '  actors  and 
dramas,'  but  on  subjects  worthy  of  the  attention 
of  reasonable  creatures,  was  a  sort  of  society 
that  seemed  to  be  extinct.  In  the  country, 
Miss  Talbot  lamented,  we  cannot  have  it 
because  the  people  are  not  there,  and  in  town 
we  cannot  have  it  because  everybody  is  daily 
engaged  in  some  public  place. 

Mrs.  Carter,  on  the  contrary,  in  the 
brightest  splendour  of  summer  suns,  looked 
forward  with  joy  to  the  dark  days  of  January 
and  the  smoke  of  London.  '  If  I  had  no  other 
motive,'  she  exclaimed,  *  to  bring  me  to 
London  than  to  avoid  the  hollow  blasts  of  the 
wind,  I  could  sit  through  the  wintry  months 
listening  to  the  tempests,  and  looking  at  the 
dashing  ocean  with  great  tranquillity,  but  Dr. 
Johnson  says,  "  London  is  the  land  of  ideas," 
and  I  say  that  it  is  the  land  of  friendship.' 


I40  A    WOMAN    OF 

'  Few  people  give  themselves  time  to  be 
friends,'  she  said,  '  or  allow  themselves  to  be  as 
wise,  good  and  happy  as  Heaven  designed 
them  to  be,  even  in  their  present  state.'  In 
the  congenial  society  of  her  intimate  circle  she 
discussed  a  number  of  subjects  that  never 
entered  into  the  heads  of  people  who  were 
'  sick  of  no  other  distemper  but  the  vertigo  of 
the  world  ; '  such  pleasures  are  never  experi- 
enced by  those  to  whom  amusement  is  a  toil- 
some business.  They  may  have,  as  Epictetus 
said,  '  their  vessels  of  gold,  but  their  discourse, 
their  principles,  their  assents,  their  pursuits, 
their  desires  are  of  mere  earthenware.'  They 
can  never  attain  to  his  ideal,  and  become  '  per- 
fected and  polished  like  a  statue,  doing  nothing 
unworthy  of  the  artist  who  made  it,  and  show- 
ing themselves  modest,  noble,  and  free  from 
perturbation.'  According  to  Epictetus  the  'only 
way  of  escaping  from  the  slavery  of  the  world  is 
found  by  those  who  can  say  with  all  their  soul, 

*  "  Lead  me,  O  Zeus  !  and  thou,  O  destiny  ! 
The  way  that  I  am  bid  by  you  to  go." ' 

She  delighted  in  the  constant  cheerfulness 
and  ease  she  experienced  in  the  company  of 
friends  who  neither  gave  nor  felt  any  of  those 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  141 

little  groundless  disquietudes  with  which  people 
are  apt  to  tease  those  whom  they  most  sin- 
cerely love.  Their  very  quarrels  were  vastly 
amusing,  for  they  used  to  quarrel  sometimes, 
but  with  so  little  resentment  on  either  side  that 
it  only  served  as  a  diversion. 

*  It  is  no  doubt  a  very  reasonable  wish,' 
she  said,  '  that  the  whole  creation  should  con- 
tribute to  our  amusement,  and  no  impediment 
ever  stand  in  the  way  of  our  enjoying  at  one 
season  the  conversation  of  our  friends,  and  at 
another  the  song  of  the  nightingales  and  the 
bloom  of  roses,  one  pleasure  being  thus  im- 
mediately replaced  by  another.  A  fine  system 
this,  and  one  extremely  well  adapted  to  the 
undeviating  rectitude  of  the  race  of  Adam ! 
After  all,  we  must  be  content  to  take  things  as 
they  are,  and  it  is  from  our  own  folly  if  they 
are  not  mighty  well.' 

For  the  sake  of  health  Mrs.  Carter  walked 
sometimes  in  the  Mall  during  the  fine  weather, 
but,  though  there  was  plenty  of  gossip  to  be 
had  there,  she  seldom  heard  anything  '  very 
smart.'  The  following  is  a  specimen  of  the 
wit  that  satisfied  the  fine  folk,  but  that  she 
feared  to  spoil  by  a  blundering  repetition  : 

Lady ,  whose  unhappy  married  life  was 


142  A    WOMAN    OF 

notorious,  was  very  ill,  and,  fearing  that  her 
lord  would  show  'the  triumph  of  hope  over 
experience,'  by  rushing  headlong  into  another 
union,  told  him  that  she  would  not  mind  dying 
if  she  were  not  afraid  of  a  successor  who  was 
the  devil's  eldest  daughter.  '  Your  ladyship 
may  be  perfectly  easy  about  that,'  answered 
my  lord,  '  for  it  is  against  the  canon  for  any 
man  to  marry  two  sisters.' 

Grotius  says  that  *  All  are  fools  who  do 
appear  to  be  such,  and  one  half  of  those  who 
do  not.' 

If  human  nature,  Mrs.  Carter  thought, 
were  estimated  by  the  figure  it  makes  in  his- 
tory, the  result  would  be  extremely  mortifying, 
but  it  would  be  as  fair  to  judge  the  elements  by 
some  earthquake,  that  once  in  a  century  lays 
waste  half  a  province,  whilst  successive  years  of 
plenty  pass  unrecorded.  History  recounts  the 
violent  passions  and  perverse  principles  that 
effect  revolutions,  but  takes  no  notice  of  the 
regular  tenor  of  common  life. 

Such  a  man  as  Sir  James  Macdonald,  with 
his  great  and  noble  schemes  for  the  civilisation 
and  improvement  of  his  property  in  the  Isle 
of  Skye  (to  which  end  he  acquired  the  Erse 
language),    and,    at     twenty,     possessed     the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  143 

knowledge  and  experience  of  age,  was  excep- 
tional, but  he  had  as  much  right  to  be  regarded 
as  representing  his  class  as  the  opposite 
extreme,  those  Macaroni  gentlemen  who  wore 
artificial  nosegays,  and  were  '  surely  a  species 
of  animal  and  not  an  English  character.'  Such 
a  composition  of  monkey  and  demon  as  at  one 
half  of  the  day  appeared  to  be  studying  all  the 
tricks  of  the  most  trifling  and  contemptible 
foppery,  and  at  the  other  was  raving  and  blas- 
pheming at  a  gaming  table,  was  surely  an 
aggregate  of  all  the  follies  and  all  the  crimes 
that  a  worthless  head  and  profligate  heart  could 
collect  from  all  parts  of  the  globe. 

A  sermon  was  preached  at  Bath  to  a  con- 
gregation of  fine  people ;  the  clergyman  took 
for  his  text,  *  I  speak  this  to  your  shame,'  and 
told  them  he  heartily  concurred  with  St.  Paul 
He  drew  such  a  picture  of  their  life  and  con- 
versation that,  if  it  did  not  make  them  ashamed, 
made  them  very  angry.  Mrs.  Carter  considered 
gambling,  extravagance,  neglect  of  domestic 
order,  the  inversion  of  day  and  night,  and  the 
hurry  of  perpetual  crowds,  equal  disqualifica- 
tions for  the  duties  of  a  rational  life.  Associat- 
ing with  all  kinds  of  characters  destroys  a 
due    regard    to    reputation,  and   weakens    that 


144  A    WOMAN    OF 

distinction  between  right  and  wrong  which  it  is 
of  infinite  importance  to  preserve.  Into  what 
is  called  the  world,  she  said,  no  true  penitent 
would  have  the  effrontery  to  try  to  enter.  A 
female  gamester  seemed  to  her  a  blot  in 
nature.  '  Pray,'  she  asked,  '  could  you  ever 
discover  who  gets  the  money  that  is  lost  ? 
I  never  remember  hearing  of  above  two  or 
three  people  who  made  a  fortune  by  gaming. 
Does  Satan  sweep  the  stakes  and  carry  off  the 
winnings  ?  At  least  one  never  heard  they 
were  anywhere  extant  on  earth.  It  would  be 
well  if  no  honest  tradespeople  were  hurt,  but 
their  lawful  debts  are  the  last  thing  people  of 
this  stamp  ever  think  of  paying.' 

The  round  of  diversion  at  Bath  is  described 
by  Dr.  Carter  in  a  letter  written  to  his  daughter, 
when  he  accompanied  his  Kentish  neighbours, 
Sir  George  and  Lady  Oxenden,  to  that  fashion- 
able resort.  Tuesday  and  Friday  evenings 
there  were  balls  ;  Monday,  Wednesday,  Thurs- 
day and  Saturday  assemblies  ;  and  every  night 
there  was  gaming  of  all  sorts.  On  Sunday 
evenings  all  profane  diversions  gave  way  to 
tea-drinking  !  The  company  met  in  the  Pump 
Room  to  drink  the  waters  in  the  morning,  and 
were  entertained  with  music.     *  For   my   own 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  145 

part,'  wrote  the  Doctor,  '  though  I  generally 
attend  these  meetings,  I  stay  not  long  at  them, 
but  read,  walk,  and  converse  with  Sir  George, 
which  is  the  chief  part  of  my  pleasure.  Last 
Monday  night  a  bloody  fray  happened  betwixt 
the  footmen  and  the  bath-chair-men,  which  put 
the  ladies  into  a  great  consternation.  The 
contest  was  sharp  but  not  long,  and  the  suc- 
cess very  doubtful.  The  footmen  had  the 
advantage  in  numbers,  and  the  chair-men  in 
the  goodness  of  their  weapons.  The  damage 
of  both  sides  is  computed  to  be  the  breaking  of 
half  a  dozen  heads,  and  the  windows  of  forty 
chairs,  so  that  there  has  been  more  business 
for  the  glazier  than  the  surgeon.  Sir  George 
met  with  a  little  brush  upon  his  leg ;  Lady 
Oxenden  and  I  just  escaped.' 

During  her  early  years  Elizabeth  Carter 
joined  the  movement,  originated  by  Dr.  John- 
son and  Mrs.  Chapone,  to  substitute  conversa- 
tion for  cards.  She  was  delighted  when  her 
old  friend  Horace  Walpole  succeeded  to  the 
earldom  of  Orford,  and  immediately  begged 
him  *  to  get  an  Act  of  Parliament  for  putting 
down  faro.'  '  As  if  I  could  make  Acts  of  Par- 
liament ! '  exclaimed  Lord  Orford,  whose  power 
as  an  hereditary  legislator  was  so  greatly  over- 


146  A    WOMAN    OF 

rated.  The  attempt  would  have  ill  become  one 
who  '  for  some  years  played  more  faro  than 
anybody.' 

*  I  played  commerce  last  night,'  wrote  Mrs. 
Carter  in  1741,  'and  made  such  wonderful 
improvement  as  to  know  that  clubs  are  red, 
hearts  black,  and  that  the  knave  is  the  highest 
card  in  the  whole  pack,  with  many  other 
particulars  too  tedious  to  mention,  only  I  was 
willing  to  give  you  a  specimen  of  my  extra- 
ordinary genius.  However,  I  lost  every 
counter,  and  retired  into  a  corner  with  other 
unfortunate  gamesters,  to  bewail  my  lot  and 
tell  quaint  stories.' 

'  For  the  punishment  of  my  iniquities,'  she 
wrote  on  another  occasion,  '  I  was  once 
drawn  into  a — what  shall  I  call  it  ?  a  drum, 
a  rout,  a  racket,  a  hurricane,  an  uproar,  a 
something  in  short  that  was  the  utter  con- 
fusion of  all  sense  and  meaning,  where  every 
charm  of  conversation  was  drove  away  by 
that  foe  to  human  society — whist ;  in  a  word, 
where  I  was  kept  up  muzzing  and  half  dead 
with  sleep  and  vexation  till  one  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  from  that  time  made  a  resolution 
in  whatever  company  I  met  a  pack  of  cards 
to  fly  fro7n  it  as  from  the  face  of  a  se7'pent. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  147 

I  have  often  borne  such  a  situation  among 
people  I  was  indifferent  to,  but  it  is  beyond 
mortal  sufferance  to  see  those  capable  of 
the  most  enlivening  entertainment  look  as 
stupid  as  dormice,  and  whenever  they  did 
speak,  it  was  in  a  language  utterly  unintel- 
ligible.' Miss  Talbot,  to  whom  she  addressed 
this  complaint,  only  objected  to  cards  when 
they  became  the  business  of  life  and  the 
bane  of  conversation  ;  in  mixed  company  she 
reverenced  them,  and  amongst  a  eood- 
humoured  set  of  people  that  were  not  con- 
versible,  she  really  loved  them.  Mrs.  Carter 
subsequently  modified  her  views,  and  in  her 
old  age  enjoyed  a  quiet  rubber. 

People  who  fancy  themselves  busy,  running 
from  one  crowded  room  to  another,  wearing 
their  spirits  and  ruining  their  health  with  late 
hours  and  splendid  entertainments,  or  wasting 
life  in  wild  ambition  or  dishonest  gain,  are,  she 
declared,  the  truly  idle,  and  not  those  who,  by 
cheerful  relaxation  from  useful  industry,  one 
part  of  the  day  provide  themselves  with  health 
to  perform  with  comfort  and  spirit  the  duties  of 
the  other. 

Mrs.  Carter  was  full  of  insular  prejudices, 
and   considered   the   new  French  ambassador, 

L  2 


148  A    WOMAN    OF 

M.  de  Noailles,  who  came  to  England  about 
1770,  very  superior  to  some  of  the  'frippery, 
dancing,  smuggling  things,  which  the  French 
Court  sometimes  send  to  amuse  our  Masters 
and  Misses,  and  scandalise  people  of  sober 
sense.'  French  ladies,  she  found,  were  not 
invariably  ^z^^r-dressed  :  they  occasionally,  even 
to  her  mind,  erred  on  the  side  of  simplicity. 
During  the  French  Revolution,  Madame  C.  de 
Noailles  escaped,  disguised  as  a  sailor,  and  hid 
in  the  hold  of  the  vessel,  covered  with  ropes. 
On  her  arrival  she  had  but  one  single  shift  with 
her,  and  in  that  and  Lady  Clermont's  powder- 
ing gown  she  dined  with  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
In  London,  Mrs.  Carter  found  that  life  without 
fashion  was  reckoned  but  '  mere  breathing,' and 
though  she  had  attained  to  a  considerable 
reputation  at  Deal  in  point  of  dress,  she  was 
sorrowfully  convinced  since  her  arrival  in  town 
of  her  great  deficiency  in  that  important  affair. 
The  *  embellishment  of  her  externals,  therefore, 
became  her  ardent  pursuit,  and  she  endeavoured 
to  make  a  gallant  appearance  in  a  dress  of 
black  silk,  but  to  aspire  to  any  perfection  in 
the  science  of  clothes  would  be,  she  said,  *  act- 
ing out  of  character.'  She  rarely  mentions  the 
subject,  except  to  protest  indignantly  when  an 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  149 

artificial  bouquet  was  considered  necessary  to 
the  perfecting  of  her  exterior.  *  Judge,  then,' 
she  exclaimed,  '  what  an  animal  I  must  be ! '  Mr. 
Cave  regretted  that  Richard  Savage,  who  ex- 
pressed such  warm  admiration  for  her  character, 
had  never  seen  her  in  a  certain  little  straw  hat. 
As  to  her  personal  appearance,  probably  the 
Russian  newspaper,  quoted  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  gives  the  truest  account  when  it 
declares  that  she  was  'assez  bien,'  but  that  her 
charms  would  have  been  enhanced  by  rather 
an  increased  supply  of  beauty  and  fortune. 

At  one  of  Mrs.  Vesey's  parties  Mrs.  Carter 
met  that  singular  but  worthy  character,  Lord 
Monboddo,  author  of  the  '  Origin  and  Progress 
of  Language,'  &c.  ;  he  was  dressed  in  a  pompa- 
dour-coloured coat,  and  a  large  white  grizzle 
wig,  and  was  the  most  fashionable  object  in  all 
polite  circles.  He  had  'writt  to  prove'  that 
human  creatures  in  their  natural  state  have 
tails  like  a  cat,  for  he  gravely  maintained 
that  men  were  originally  monkeys,  possessing 
neither  speech  nor  reason,  and  was  the  first  to 
direct  attention  to  the  origin  of  Darwinism  and 
Neo-Kantism.  As  Mrs.  Carter  was  sitting  in 
a  cool  corner  among  some  quiet  people  of  her 
own  sort,   without   tails,   Mrs.  Vesey  dragged 


I50  A    WOMAN    OF 

her  into  a  hot  crowd  that  was  listening  to  my 
Lord  Monboddo,  and  had  no  sooner  stuck  her 
at  his  elbow,  than  he  went  off  to  another  part 
of  the  room,  whereupon  she  walked  back  re 
infecta  to  her  corner.  He  was  pleasant  and 
unassuming,  with  an  astonishing  quantity  of 
erudition,  an  enthusiast  in  Greek  literature  and 
a  worshipper  of  Homer.  Notwithstanding  his 
learning  and  talents,  he  declared  he  had  re- 
ceived more  information  during  the  time  he 
had  conversed  with  society  in  London  than  he 
ever  found  before.  Though  unable  to  acquire 
the  tail  of  his  ancestors.  Lord  Monboddo  en- 
deavoured, as  far  as  the  laws  of  society  would 
permit,  to  enjoy  their  freedom,  by  taking  a 
daily  air-bath  in  his  room,  where  he  walked 
unattired  with  the  windows  open. 

Mrs.  Carter's  own  appearance  at  one  of 
Mrs.  Yesey's  assemblies  is  thus  described  in 
the  year  1785  by  Elizabeth  Sheridan  : 

'  Our  circle  was  increased  by  the  arrival  of 
Mrs.  Carter ;  on  her  being  announced  you  may 
suppose  my  whole  attention  was  turned  to  the 
door.  She  seems  about  sixty  [she  was  really 
sixty-eight]  and  is  rather  fat ;  she  is  no  way 
striking  in  her  appearance,  and  was  dressed  in  a 
scarlet  gown  and  petticoat,  with  a  plain  undress 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  151 

cap  and  perfectly  flat  head.  A  small  work-bag 
was  hanging  at  her  arm,  out  of  which  she  drew 
some  knitting  as  soon  as  she  was  seated  ;  but 
with  no  fuss  or  airs.  She  entered  into  the 
conversation  with  that  ease  which  persons  have 
when  both  their  thoughts  and  words  are  at 
command,  and  with  no  toss  of  the  head,  no 
sneer,  no  emphatic  look,  in  short  no  affected 
consequence  of  any  kind.' 

That  our  heroine  when  verging  on  seventy 
should  have  elected  to  clothe  herself  in  scarlet 
is  rather  a  shock,  but  her  '  perfectly  flat  head ' 
only  implies  that  she  did  not  adopt  the  *  tower- 
ing i?a;<^^/onian  '  head-dress  crowned  with 
feathers  then  in  vogue.  She  was  always  more 
sociable  and  easy  when  there  were  few  people, 
and  avoided  entertainments  where,  as  Hannah 
More  said,  '  200  persons  met  together,  dressed 
in  the  extremity  of  fashion  ;  painted  as  red  as 
bacchanals  ;  poisoning  the  air  with  perfumes  ; 
treading  on  each  other's  gowns ;  making  the 
crowd  they  blame ;  not  one  in  ten  able  to  get 
a  chair  ;  protesting  they  are  engaged  in  ten 
other  places,  and  lamenting  the  fatigue  they 
are  not  obliged  to  endure.' 

When  Epictetus  was  annoyed  by  the  rude- 
ness, the  pushing,  the  abuse,  and  the  thievish 


152  A    WOMAN    OF 

propensities  of  his  fellow-creatures  at  the  public 
baths,  he  did  not  lose  his  temper — or,  at  least, 
he  recommended  his  followers  not  to  lose 
theirs — for,  he  said,  '  It  is  more  important  you 
should  keep  your  will  in  harmony  with  nature 
than  that  you  should  bathe.' 

Neither  Epictetus  nor  his  translator  could 
foresee  the  congested  state  of  modern  society, 
or  imagine  that  at  the  Court  of  Queen  Victoria 
a  crowd,  largely  composed  of  well-bred  women, 
would  have  to  be  restrained  by  solid  barriers, 
guarded  by  Gentlemen-at-Arms,  from  storming 
each  line  of  defence  as  they  approached  the 
Royal  presence.  During  the  early  years  of  the 
present  reign  the  scene  of  conflict  was  happily 
changed  to  the  outer  hall  of  the  palace,  which 
enabled  loyal  subjects  to  pass  their  Majesties 
unruffled  by  the  fray.  The  sight  of  beauty  in 
distress  during  the  struggle  that  ensued  as  the 
crowd  departed  sometimes  melted  the  large 
heart  of  a  stalwart  Life-Guardsman.  With 
grim  humour  he  would  allow  an  importunate 
fair  one  to  pass,  knowing  that  her  farther  pro- 
gress was  barred  by  a  solid  barrier  of  high 
seats  that  no  persuasion  could  move,  and  that 
impeded  by  train  and  veil  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  negotiate.      Baffled  and  dejected, 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  153 

she  would  soon  be  craving  re-admission  to 
the  seething  mass  of  dishevelled  humanity, 
from  which  she  had  lately  prayed  to  be  de- 
livered. 

Mrs.  Carter  always  wished  our  Empire  re- 
strained to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  A  large 
extent  of  territory  placed  beyond  the  grasp  of 
the  seat  of  empire  ever  has  been,  and  ever 
will  be,  she  considered,  the  ruin  of  the  mother 
country.  Though  the  loss  of  the  American 
colonies  occasioned  great  convulsions,  she  pre- 
dicted that  in  the  next  age  the  nation  would  be 
the  happier  for  being  rid  of  them.  On  the 
subject  of  American  Independence  she  felt 
much  like  the  Frenchman  who  said,  '  Nous 
sommes  ^erases,  nous  sommes  abimes,  et  nous 
allons  a  I'opera.' 

She  described  the  uproar  occasioned  in 
London  by  the  eclipse  in  July  1748  as  incon- 
ceivable ;  the  very  beggars  in  the  streets  in- 
sulted folks  who  refused  to  give  them  small 
beer,  by  threatening  them  that  the  Day  of 
Judgment  would  be  next  Thursday. 

She  felt  much  concerned  at  the  imprison- 
ment of  a  negro  for  calling  himself  'esquire.' 
She  had  never  heard  of  anybody  being  taken 
up  for  calling  himself  a  scholar,  or  a  critic,  or 


154  A    WOMAN    OF 

a  man  of  honour,  and  yet  how  many  went 
about  the  world  in  unmolested  possession  of 
these  titles  to  which  they  had  no  better  right 
than  her  poor  friend  to  his  esquireship. 

As  an  onlooker  the  petty  vanities  of  society 
amused  her.  Besides  other  impertinences 
essential  to  the  character  of  a  fine  lady  she 
noted  a  peculiar  kind  of  vanity,  which  dis- 
played itself  in  a  perpetual  alteration  of  the 
will,  for  which  purpose  one  of  her  acquaintance 
contracted  with  a  lawyer  by  the  year.  '  'Tis 
not,'  she  said,  '  that  the  woman  has  any  love 
for  the  people  she  puts  in,  or  resentment  against 
those  she  scratches  out,  but  a  determination  to 
show  her  power  ;  and  those  who  would  get  any- 
thing by  her  must  catch  her  at  her  last  gasp.' 

Lord  Chesterfield's  cynicism,  however, 
rather  disappointed  a  virtuoso  of  his  acquaint- 
ance, who  bought  an  old  picture  of  a  man  and 
woman  and  two  boys,  and  observing  the  Stan- 
hope arms  in  one  corner,  presented  it  to  my 
lord,  imagining  he  would  be  delighted  to  have 
a  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  his  family.  To  pre- 
vent all  disputes  of  precedency  for  the  future, 
my  lord,  who  treated  this  sort  of  vanity  very 
whimsically,  inscribed  under  the  figures, '  Adam 
Stanhope,  of  Eden  Garden,   Egypt,  and  Eve 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  155 

Stanhope,  his  wife,  with  their  two  sons,  Cain 
Stanhope  and  Abel  Stanhope.'  His  genealogy- 
would  have  been  indisputable  if  he  had  put 
Seth  Stanhope  instead  of  Cain. 

That  self-advertisement  and  pose  without 
which  no  one,  though  possessing  the  beauty  of 
Venus  herself,  would  fill  the  r61e  of  a  profes- 
sional beauty  she  severely  censured  ;  the  very- 
term,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  invented 
towards  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was 
applied  by  Mrs.  Carter  to  the  Miss  Gunnings, 
of  whom  she  wrote :  '  Indeed  a  beauty  by  pro- 
fession is  a  kind  of  being  much  too  hurrying 
and  bruyant  not  to  overset  all  the  tranquil  ideas 
of  sequestered  life,  and  is  supportable  only  in  its 
proper  element — a  crowded  town  assembly.' 
She  agreed  that  nothing  makes  people  tired 
of  a  fine  face  but  a  want  of  something  in 
the  mind  and  character,  and  its  being  seen 
everywhere  in  that  idle,  fluttering  way,  that 
makes  half  the  fine  faces  in  England  old  and 
neglected  in  a  twelvemonth. 

She  considered  mere  constitutional  good 
humour  and  civility  mighty  pretty  decorations 
for  an  afternoon  visit,  but  at  home,  or  in  the 
important  duties  of  life,  they  are  of  little  avail, 
if  the  behaviour  is   regulated  only  by  a  system 


156  A    WOMAN    OF 

of  mere  'savoir  vivre.'  For  the  value  of  each 
action  depends  on  its  being  performed  in 
obedience  to  the  will  of  God.  Our  powers  are 
inconceivably  increased  and  the  most  trifling 
acts  acquire  dignity  from  a  sense  of  duty. 
When  good  people  are  lacking  in  courtesy, 
they  are  certainly  so  far  deficient  in  goodness. 

The  carelessness  of  extreme  youth  is  no 
doubt  an  excuse  in  many  instances  for  want 
of  consideration,  '  and  beauty  much  admired  * 
often  chokes  better  feelings ;  but  the  mind  will 
have  its  hours  of  repose  in  spite  of  fashion,  and 
then  all  the  better  seeds,  which  were  early 
sown,  will  spring  up  and  bear  fruit. 

From  the  society  of  politicians  Mrs.  Carter 
found  she  received  much  more  literary  informa- 
tion than  from  scholars  and  authors,  who  on  one 
occasion  ranged  themselves  on  one  side  of  the 
room,  leaving  the  ladies  to  twirl  their  shuttles 
and  amuse  each  other  as  they  could.  From 
what  little  she  overheard  of  their  conversation 
she  learnt  that  they  were  discoursing  on  the 
old  English  poets,  a  subject  that  did  not  seem 
much  beyond  her  female  capacity.  These  men 
of  letters  did  not  show  even  the  courtesy  of 
two  individuals  of  '  the  squire  kind,'  with  whom 
she  travelled  in  a  coach,  whose  discourse  for 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  157 

the  whole  day  turned  on  horses  and  dogs, 
except  now  and  then  a  word  upon  the  weather, 
dust,  and  heat,  out  of  pure  condescension  to 
her  Hmited  powers  of  conversation.  Dr. 
Carter's  Kentish  neighbour  and  Hterary  friend, 
Sir  George  Oxenden,  warned  Elizabeth  in  her 
youth  that  there  was  hardly  an  instance  of  a 
woman  of  letters  entering  into  an  intimacy 
with  men  of  wit  and  parts — particularly  poets 
— who  were  not  afterwards  abused  and  mal- 
treated by  them  in  print.  Mr.  Pope,  he  said, 
had  done  so  more  than  once.  Her  father 
added,  *  As  you  never  abuse  others,  you  may 
hope  not  to  be  abused.  Hold  your  own,  but 
without  any  appearance  of  ill-nature  or  con- 
tempt.' She  always  maintained  that  the  unjust 
manner  in  which  Pope  had  been  attacked  ex- 
cused any  apparent  malice  on  his  own  part. 

She  regretted  the  more  powerful  avocations 
that  caused  Burke  to  quit  the  tranquil  pleasures 
of  the  select  *  Bas  Bleu  '  society  for  the  turbu- 
lent schemes  of  ambition  and  the  tricks  of 
political  life  ;  he  rarely  found  time  to  step  in  to 
their  assemblies,  where,  if  he  marked  no  one 
with  whom  he  wished  to  exchange  ideas,  he 
would  seize  the  first  book  or  pamphlet  he  could 
catch  to  sooth  his  harassed  mind  by  reading  a 


158  A    WOMAN    OF 

passage  or  two  aloud.  '  He  did  not  talk,' 
Johnson  said,  '  from  a  desire  of  distinction,  but 
because  his  mind  was  full.  A  man  who  is  used 
to  the  applause  of  the  House  of  Commons  has 
no  wish  for  that  of  private  company.  A  man 
accustomed  to  throw  for  a  thousand  pounds,  if 
set  down  to  throw  for  sixpence,  would  not  be 
at  the  pains  to  count  his  dice.'  Burke's  talk 
was  '  the  ebullition  of  his  mind.' 

Throughout  her  life  Mrs.  Carter  never  came 
much  in  contact  with  the  Royal  family,  but  in 
1 79 1  Queen  Charlotte  expressed  a  desire  that 
she  should  be  presented  to  her  at  Lady  Cre- 
morne's  house  in  Chelsea.  She  also  received 
visits  from  the  Princess  of  Wales  and  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland  at  her  house  at  Deal. 

The  pleasure  Mrs.  Carter  found  in  society 
was  intelligent  intercourse  with  real  friends, 
and,  as  this  enjoyment  was  not  limited  to  the 
fleeting  season  of  youth,  she  could  prepare  for 
growing  old  with  a  good  grace,  and  never  be- 
came contemptible  to  society,  or  burdensome 
and  disagreeable  to  her  friends.  She  was  de- 
scribed  as  a  really  noble-looking  woman  ;  age 
had  rarely  been  so  gracefully  seen  in  the  female 
sex  ;  her  face  was  a  benediction  ;  goodness  and 
philanthropy  beamed  in  the  placid  serenity  of 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  159 

her  interesting  countenance.  Thackeray  in  his 
'  Virginians'  mentions  Mrs.  Carter  amongst  the 
most  attractive  women  of  her  day.  When  Sir 
George  Warrington  succeeded  to  his  uncle's 
estates  he  soon  wearied  of  his  surroundings,  and 
the  only  possession  he  contemplated  with  un- 
mixed satisfaction  was  his  wife,  who  had  shared 
his  poverty  in  his  '  dear  little  cottage  at  Lam- 
beth.' Though  reminding  her  somewhat  pom- 
pously how  immeasurably  inferior  she  was  to  the 
women  he  might  have  married,  with  the  spirit 
of  the  Turk  that  is  said  to  lurk  in  all  English- 
men, he  allowed  that  she  did  very  well.  '  I 
have  never  cared,'  he  said,  '  for  another  woman. 
I  have  seen  more  beautiful,  but  none  that  suited 
me  as  well  as  your  ladyship.  I  have  met  Mrs. 
Carter  and  Miss  Mulso  [Mrs.  Chapone],  Mrs. 
Thrale,  and  Mme.  Kaufmann,  and  the  angelical 
Gunnings,  and  her  Grace  of  Devonshire,  and  a 
host  of  beauties  who  were  not  angelic  by  any 
means  ;  and  I  was  not  dazzled  by  them.' 

It  was  impossible  not  to  be  better  as  well 
as  happier  for  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
Mrs.  Carter  ;  the  most  insignificant  people  she 
inspired  with  confidence  in  themselves,  by 
showing  them  how  to  regulate  their  minds,  as 
well  as  their  actions,  by  the  power  of  will. 


i6o  A    WOMAN    OF 

Mrs.  Carter's  talk  was  all  upon  books  ;  of  life 
and  manners,  Fanny  Burney  declared  she  was 
as  ignorant  as  a  nun.  If  certain  phases  of  them 
escaped  her  observation,  the  oversight  happily 
contributed  to  her  optimism  ;  her  shrewdness 
and  common  sense  were  undoubted.  Dr.  John- 
son questioned  if  much  consolation  is  to  be 
drawn  from  seeing  life  as  it  is,  but,  he  added, 
'  that  drawn  from  truth,  if  any  there  be,  is  solid 
and  durable.'  Possessing  few  of  the  surround- 
ings and  ties  that  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  re- 
present happiness,  Mrs.  Carter  exemplified  the 
maxim  that  to  be  good  is  to  be  happy.  *  Happy 
she  certainly  was  beyond  the  race  of  women.' 
Mrs.  Chapone  observed  a  *  few  dear  comfortable 
signs  of  weakness  '  in  her  which  were  attractive, 
because  the  most  endearing  ties  of  society  arise 
from  mutual  indulgence  of  each  other's  failings. 
She  kept  out  of  an  easy-chair  as  long  as  possible, 
and  was  content  to  take  the  blessings  of  friend- 
ship and  affection,  with  the  inevitable  tax  of 
anxiety,  that  is  wisely  imposed  on  them,  till  we 
wake  amidst  a  society  from  which  we  can  dread 
no  future  separation. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  i6i 


CHAPTER   VII 

DR.    JOHNSON 

For  Dr.  Johnson  Mrs.  Carter  had  a  very  great 
esteem.  She  had  enjoyed  his  friendship  for 
nearly  fifty  years.  He  had  been  introduced  to 
her  by  Mr.  Cave,  editor  of  the  '  Gentleman's 
Magazine.'  On  this  event  her  father  wrote  to 
her  on  June  25,  1738  :  'You  mention  Johnson  ; 
but  that  is  a  name  with  which  I  am  utterly 
unacquainted.  Neither  his  scholastic,  critical, 
or  poetical  character  ever  reached  my  ears.  I 
a  little  suspect  his  judgment  if  he  is  very  fond 
of  Martial.'  In  one  of  her  last  conversations 
with  Dr.  Johnson,  when  she  was  expressing 
her  approval  of  his  unswerving  adherence  to 
religion,  and  admiration  for  his  sound  princi- 
ples, he  took  her  by  the  hand,  and  said  with 
great  eagerness,  'You  know  this  to  be  true; 
testify  it  to  the  world  when  I  am  gone.' 

She  blamed  his  biographers  for  recording 

M 


i62  A    WOMAN    OF 

arguments  he  had  maintained  only  for  the  sake 
of  victory,  which  did  not  convey  his  genuine 
sentiments,  for  he  held  that  a  man  should  be 
able  to  argue  equally  well  on  either  side.  His 
real  opinions,  she  declared,  were  to  be  found  in 
his  works. 

His  '  Lives  of  the  Poets,'  which  had  lost 
him  the  friendship  of  many  eminent  people,  did 
not  alter  her  steadfast  regard  for  him  ;  all  that 
it  contained  of  envy  or  ill-nature  she  attributed 
to  a  morbid  irritability  of  the  nerves,  brought 
on  by  bodily  suffering. 

Referring  to  their  first  acquaintance,  he 
wrote  to  her :  '  To  every  joy  is  appended  a 
sorrow.  The  name  of  Miss  Carter  introduces 
the  memory  of  Cave.  Poor  dear  Cave !  I 
owed  him  much ;  for  to  him  I  owe  that  I 
have  known  you.'  Dr.  Johnson  concluded 
one  of  his  letters  to  her  with  the  expres- 
sion of  a  respect  '  which  I  neither  owe  nor 
pay  to  any  other.'  Having  dined  at  Mrs. 
Garrick's  in  the  society  of  Mrs.  Carter,  Hannah 
More,  and  Fanny  Burney,  he  declared,  '  Three 
such  women  are  not  to  be  found  ;  I  know  not 
where  I  could  find  a  fourth,  except  Mrs.  Len- 
nox, who  is  superior  to  them  all.'  So  much 
excellence,  however,  seems  to  have  been  rather 


SAMUEL    JOHNSON,    LL.D. 
After  the  f>,iiittinu  hy  Sir  Jashiui  Heyiiolilx.   I'  l<  .\. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  163 

oppressive,  for  when  Boswell  exclaimed,  '  What ! 
had  you  them  all  to  yourself,  sir  ? '  he  answered, 
'  I  had  them  all,  as  much  as  they  were  to  be 
had  ;  but  it  might  have  been  better  had  there 
been  more  company  there.' 

Dr.  Johnson  was  Mrs.  Carter's  favourite 
author.  Of  his  notes  on  Shakespeare  she 
wrote,  '  I  will  not  undertake  his  defence  as  a 
commentator,  but  his  work  is  valuable  for  many 
strokes  of  his  own  great,  refined  and  delicate 
way  of  thinking.  With  all  his  encomiums  on 
our  Bishop  [Warburton],  he  sometimes,  in  the 
most  polite  and  elegant  language,  treats  him 
more  severely  than  his  open  enemies  ;  these 
have 

'  "  Kicked  and  cuffed,  and  split,  and  tore  and  rent, 
And  done  they  know  not  what,  in  their  avengement," 

but  the  pen  of  Dr.  Johnson,  like  the  ethereal 
stroke  of  lightning,  without  any  external  mark 
of  violence  has  penetrated  to  his  vitals.' 

Dr.  Johnson,  she  said,  had  no  vanity,  and 
there  was  never  a  human  mind  more  regardless 
of  censure  and  applause.  This  excused  the 
want  of  tenderness  he  had  shown  for  the 
weaknesses  of  others,  though  a  knowledge  of 
mankind  should  have  taught  him  that  people 

M  2 


i64  A    WOMAN    OF 

whose  minds  are  not  of  the  same  impenetrable 
firmness  may  suffer  by  having  their  blundering 
and  folly  exposed  with  such  unmitigated  severity. 

He  once,  however,  had  the  satisfaction  of 
outdoing  even  Mrs.  Carter  in  charity  towards 
his  neighbour.  When  they  were  both  dining 
with  Mrs.  Garrick,  in  company  with  Hannah 
More,  Mrs.  Boscawen,  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds, 
and  Dr.  Burney,  the  conversation  turned  on 
Thomas  Hollis,  whose  democratic  books,  deco- 
rated with  daggers  and  caps  of  liberty,  were 
being  circulated  throughout  Europe.  '  I  doubt 
he  is  an  atheist,'  said  Mrs.  Carter,  in  one  of 
those  unguarded  moments  which  are  sure  to 
occur  when  the  most  charitable  allow  themselves 
to  discuss  their  neighbours.  '  I  don't  know 
that,'  replied  Johnson,  smiling  triumphantly  ; 
*  he  might  have  become  one  if  he  had  had  time 
to  ripen,  he  might  have  exuberated  into  an 
atheist' 

Dr.  Johnson  always  took  a  friendly  interest 
in  her  literary  work,  and  suggested  that  she 
should  undertake  a  translation  of  '  Boethius  de 
Consolatione '  because  there  is  prose  and  verse, 
and  put  her  name  to  it  when  published. 

Of  his  epigram  on  Mrs.  Carter,^  Dr.  Johnson 

^  See  Gent.  Mag.  vol.  viii.  p.  210. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  165 

wrote :  *  I  have  composed  a  Greek  epigram 
on  Eliza,  and  think  she  ought  to  be  celebrated 
in  as  many  different  languages  as  Louis  le 
Grand.'  He  always  treated  her  with  civility, 
attention,  and  respect.  Her  winning  gentle- 
ness and  the  politeness  of  her  conversation  and 
address  were  said  to  be  such  as  to  disarm  even 
brutality  itself,  and  her  religious  cast  of  charac- 
ter and  gravity  of  deportment,  as  well  as  her 
erudition,  imposed  some  check  on  the  asperity 
and  eccentricities  of  Dr.  Johnson,  who  wrote  to 
her,  '  Who  is  there  that  you  cannot  influence  ? ' 
It  was  the  affectation  of  learning  that  he 
disliked,  not  the  learning  itself;  she  was  not 
'  herissee  de  grec,'  nor  blown  up  with  self- 
importance. 

'  And  Carter  taught  the  female  train, 
The  deeply  wise  are  never  vain.' 

He  respected  her  domestic  qualifications, 
and  though  he  considered  that  a  man  is  in 
general  better  pleased  when  he  has  a  good 
dinner  on  his  table  than  when  his  wife  talks 
Greek,  he  said,  '  My  old  friend,  Mrs.  Carter, 
can  make  a  pudding  as  well  as  translate 
Epictetus,  and  work  a  handkerchief  as  well  as 
compose  a  poem.' 

He  quite  allowed  that  a  man  of  sense  and 


i66  A    WOMAN    OF 

education  should  find  a  suitable  companion  in 
his  wife,  and  that  it  is  a  miserable  thing  when 
conversation  is  limited  to  a  dispute  as  to 
whether  the  mutton  should  be  boiled  or  roasted. 

When  consulted  by  a  friend  as  to  the 
advisability  of  proposing  to  a  woman  whom  he 
greatly  admired,  but  whose  talents  he  feared, 
the  Doctor  assured  him  that  after  she  had  been 
married  to  him  for  one  year  he  would  find  her 
reason  much  weaker,  and  her  wit  not  so  bright. 
This  man,  '  who  praised  one  whom  he  would 
have  been  afraid  to  marry,'  probably  ended  by 
'  marrying  one  whom  he  would  have  been 
ashamed  to  praise.' 

Of  Dr.  Johnson's  opinion  of  the  '  Bas  Bleu' 
ladies  she  wrote  to  Mrs.  Montagu  : 

'  Oh,  dear  !  Oh,  dear !  how  pretty  we  look, 
and  what  brave  things  Mr.  Johnson  said  of  us! 
I  am  just  as  sensible  to  present  fame  as  you 
can  be.  Your  Virgils  and  Horaces  may  talk 
what  they  will  of  posterity,  but  I  think  it  is 
much  better  to  be  celebrated  by  the  men, 
women  and  children  among  whom  you  are 
actually  living.  One  thing  is  particularly 
agreeable  to  my  vanity,  that  you  and  I  always 
figure  in  the  literary  world  together,  and  that 
from    the    classical     poet     of    water-drinking 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  167 

rhymes  to  the  highest  dispenser  of  human 
fame,  Mr.  Johnson's  pocket-book,  it  is  per- 
fectly well  understood  that  we  are  to  make 
our  appearance  in  the  same  piece.  I  am 
mortified,  however,  that  we  do  not  in  this  last 
display  of  our  persons  and  talents  stand  in  the 
same  corner  as  I  am  told  we  do  not,  for,  to 
say  truth,  I  cannot  exactly  tell  which  is  you, 
and  which  is  I,  and  which  is  anybody  else. 
But  this  must  arise  from  mere  deficiency  of  my 
sight,  for  some  of  the  good  people  of  Deal 
affirm  my  picture  to  be  excessively  like.' 

At  a  time  that  much  dissatisfaction  was 
expressed  at  the  maladministration  of  the 
Government,  some  of  the  Streatham  coterie 
professed  themselves  weary  of  male  administra- 
tion and  proposed  a/^male  one.  Dr.  Johnson, 
when  called  upon  to  arrange  it,  replied,  '  Well, 
then,  we  will  have  : 

Carter  :  for  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Montagu  :  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury. 
Hon.    Sophia    Byron  :    Head    of    the 

Admiralty. 
Mrs.  Crewe :  Speaker  of  the  House  of 

Commons. 
Mrs.  Wedderburne  :  Lord  Chancellor. 


i68  A    WOMAN    OF 

Mrs.  Wallace  :  Attorney-General. 

Mrs.  Chapone :  Preceptor  to  the  Princes. 

Hannah  More  :  Poet  Laureate. 

and  the  Heralds'  Office  under  the  care  of  Miss 
Owen. 

'  And  no  place  for  me  ? '  cried  Mrs.  Thrale. 

'  No,  no,'  replied  Dr.  Johnson ;  '  you  will 
get  into  Parliament  by  your  little  silver  tongue, 
and  then  rise  by  your  own  merit' 

'  And  what  shall  I  do  ? '  exclaimed  Fanny 
Burney. 

*  Oh,  we  will  send  you  for  a  spy — and 
perhaps  you  will  be  hanged ! '  rejoined  the 
Doctor  with  a  loud  laugh,  that  a  French 
writer  has  compared  to  that  of  a  rhinoceros. 

Mrs.  Anna  Williams,  the  blind  lady  who 
found  an  asylum  in  Dr.  Johnson's  house,  en- 
deavoured to  supplement  her  scanty  means  by 
publishing  a  volume  of  '  Miscellanies,'  to  which 
the  Doctor  had  contributed  the  preface  and 
several  of  the  pieces.  When  she  urged  its 
immediate  publication,  he  always  put  her  off 
with  '  Well,  we'll  think  about  it,'  and  Goldsmith 
said,  '  Leave  it  to  me.'  But  Mrs.  Carter  was 
more  practical,  for  by  her  activity  and  kindness 
she  procured  a  long  list  of  subscribers. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  169 

Mrs.  Carter  wrote  a  paper  (No.  100  in  '  The 
Rambler ')  on  modish  pleasures,  signed  Cha- 
riessa,  '  recommending  they  should  give  their 
readers  a  complete  history  of  Forms,  Fashions, 
Frolics,  Drums,  Hurricanes,  Balls,  Assem- 
blies, Ridottos,  Masquerades,  Auctions,  Plays, 
Operas,  Puppet-shows,  and  Bear-gardens,  and 
the  whole  art  and  mystery  of  passing  day  after 
day,  week  after  week,  and  year  after  year, 
without  the  assistance  of  any  one  thing  that 
formal  animals  are  pleased  to  call  useful  or 
necessary.  .  .  . 

'  Such  irresistible  arguments,'  she  wrote, 
'  must  convince  numbers  of  the  error  of  sup- 
posing they  were  sent  into  the  world  for  any 
other  purpose  but  to  flatter,  sport,  and  shine, 
and  that  an  everlasting  round  of  diversion,  the 
more  sprightly  and  hurrying  the  better,  is  the 
most  important  end  of  human  life. 

'  As  for  the  antiquated  notions  of  duty,  they 
are  not  to  be  met  with  in  any  French  novel 
but  derived  almost  wholly  from  authors  called 
I  think,  Peter  and  Paul,  who  lived  a  vast  many 
years  ago.  ...  It  does  not  appear  that  even 
their  most  zealous  admirers  (for  some  parti- 
sans of  his  own  sort  every  writer  will  have) 
can    pretend    to   say   they  were   ever   at    one 


I70  A    WOMAN    OF 

masquerade.  .  .  .  Little  oaths,  polite  dissimula- 
tion, tea-table  scandal,  delightful  indolence,  the 
glitter  of  finery,  the  triumph  of  precedence,  the 
enchantments  of  flattery,  are  things  of  which 
they  seem  to  have  had  no  notion  ;  .  .  .  indeed, 
one  cannot  discover  anyone  thing  they  pretend 
to  teach  people,  but  to  be  wise  and  good. 

*  In  short,  Mr.  Rambler,  by  a  faithful  repre- 
sentation of  modish  life,  you  will  have  done 
your  part  in  promoting  what  everybody  seems 
to  confess  the  true  purpose  of  human  existence 
— perpetual  dissipation.   .  .  . 

'  All  feelings  of  humanity,  the  sympathies  of 
friendship,  all  care  of  a  family,  and  solicitude 
about  the  good  or  ill  of  others,  will  be  happily 
stifled  in  a  round  of  everlasting  racketing,  and 
all  serious  thoughts,  particularly  of  hereafter, 
will  be  banished  out  of  the  world,  as  it  is  so 
very  clear  a  case  that  nobody  ever  dies,' 

The  paper  of  which  the  above  is  a  short 
resume  was  written  at  the  suggestion  of  Miss 
Talbot,  who  suffered  from  the  effects  of  '  mere 
wicked  racketing,'  that  consisted  not  only  in 
going  to  public  places  and  consuming  life  in 
idle  visits  and  dress,  but  merely  in  being  out  on 
the    most    plausible   pretences   perpetually,  all 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  171 

day  and  every  day,  discharging  the  ordinary 
civilities  of  Hfe  without  time  to  read,  reflect, 
recollect  or  think.  Though  she  did  not  fre- 
quent card-tables,  bear-gardens,  and  auctions, 
or  lead  the  life  of  the  *  Ranelagh-education 
Misses,'  her  head  was  as  giddy  and  empty  as  if 
she  had  whirled  through  the  whole  round  of 
impertinence.  Her  acquaintance  lay  amongst 
excellent  people  whom  she  loved  and  esteemed, 
but  she  complained  that  there  were  so  many  of 
them  that  her  narrow  mind  had  not  room  to 
hold  them  all  at  once,  with  all  the  attentions 
that  belong  particularly  to  every  one. 

Mrs.  Carter  wrote  another  paper  in  '  The 
Rambler '  (No.  44)  on  '  Religion  and  Supersti- 
tion.' Religion,  she  asserted,  is  not  confined 
to  cells  or  sullen  retirement.  '  These  are  the 
gloomy  doctrines  of  superstition.  The  greatest 
honour  we  can  pay  the  Author  of  our  being  is 
shown  by  a  cheerful  behaviour  and  a  mind  satis- 
fied with  his  dispensations.  The  restraints  and 
difficulties  of  social  active  life  furnish  the  most 
useful  discipline  of  the  human  heart,  and  the 
best  means  of  improvement  to  ourselves  and 
others.  Suffering  is  no  duty  unless  in  a  good 
cause,  nor  pleasure  a  crime  unless  it  de- 
moralises.' 


172  A    WOMAN    OF 

'  I  am  more  and  more  charmed  with  *'  The 
Rambler," '  wrote  Mrs.  Carter.  '  Some  have 
thought  it  too  serious  ;  but  is  it  not  strange 
that  human  creatures,  designed  for  noble  and 
serious  thought,  should  be  perpetually  calling 
out  for  something  to  make  them  laugh  ? ' 

In  1 75 1  she  wrote  to  Miss  Talbot : 

*  I  was  outrageous  at  your  not  uttering  a 
sigh  of  lamentation  over  the  departure  of  "  The 
Rambler,"  nor  once  mentioning  his  farewell 
paper.  It  put  me  a  good  deal  out  of  humour 
with  the  world,  and  more  particularly  with  the 
great  and  powerful  part  of  it.  To  be  sure, 
people  in  a  closet  are  apt  to  form  strange, 
odd  ideas,  which  as  soon  as  they  put  their 
heads  out  of  doors,  they  find  to  be  utterly  in- 
consistent with  that  something  or  other  that 
regulates  or,  rather,  confounds  the  actions  of 
mankind.  In  mere  speculation  it  seems  mighty 
absurd  that  those  who  govern  states  and  call 
themselves  politicians  should  not  eagerly  decree 
laurels,  and  statues,  and  public  support  to  a 
genius  who  contributes  all  in  his  power  to  make 
them  the  rulers  of  reasonable  creatures. 

'  However,  as  honours  and  emoluments  are 
by  no  means  the  infallible  consequences  of 
such  an  endeavour,  Mr.  Johnson  is  very  happy 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  173 

in  having  proposed  to  himself  that  reward  to 
his  labours  which  he  is  sure  not  to  be  dis- 
appointed of  by  the  stupidity  or  ingratitude 
of  mankind,' 

Notwithstanding  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
literati,  and  the  high  esteem  in  which  '  The 
Rambler'  was  held,  the  sale  was  very  incon- 
siderable— seldom  more  than  500  copies  were 
disposed  of.  It  was  thought  that  the  price  of 
2d.,  or  the  unfavourable  season  of  its  first  pub- 
lication, might  have  hindered  its  sale.  The 
first  paper  of  '  The  Rambler  '  was  published  on 
Tuesday,  March  20,  1749-50  ;  and  it  was  con- 
tinued without  interruption  every  Tuesday  and 
Saturday,  till  Saturday,  March  14,  1752,  on 
which  day  it  closed.  Dr.  Johnson  received  no 
assistance  except  four  letters  in  No.  10,  by 
Mrs.  Chapone  ;  No.  -^o,  by  Catharine  Talbot ; 
No.  97,  by  Samuel  Richardson  ;  and  Nos.  44 
and  100,  by  Elizabeth  Carter. 

Mrs.  Carter  did  not  regret  that  the  patron- 
age of  men  of  letters  by  the  great  seemed 
completely  abolished,  for  '  authors  are  now,' 
she  said,  '  happily  obliged  to  trust  solely  to  that 
best  of  all  patrons — that  best  of  all  judges  of 
literary  merit,  the  public' 


174  A    WOMAN    OF 


CHAPTER   VIII 

MRS.    MONTAGU 

In  1 78 1  a  paragraph  in  the  newspapers,  which 
Fanny  Burney  thought  insufferably  impertinent, 
announced  that  the  sprightly  writer  of  '  Eve- 
lina' was  domesticated  with  Mrs.  Thrale,  in  the 
same  manner  that  Miss  More  was  with  Mrs. 
Garrick,  and  Mrs.  Carter  with  Mrs.  Montagu. 

This  statement  was  one  of  those  half  truths 
that  is  worse  than  a  lie. 

Mrs.  Carter  lived  in  constant  intercourse 
with  the  '  Queen  of  the  Blues,'  assisting  at 
her  breakfast  parties  held  in  Adams's  famous 
Chinese  room  in  Hill  Street,  and  later  at  the 
*  Bas  Bleu '  assemblies  in  Portman  Square,  and 
was  also  admitted  to  those  quiet  evenings  that 
Mrs.  Montagu  spent  in  unreserved  interchange 
of  thought  with  Lord  Bath  and  Lord  Lyttelton  ; 
but  she  always  kept  her  own  rooms  in  Clarges 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  175 

Street,  that  she  might  have  somewhere  to  lay 
her  aching  head  without  troubUng  anybody. 

As  Elizabeth  Robinson,  Mrs.  Montagu  had 
lived  much  at  Horton,  near  Hythe,  a  property 
that  had  descended  to  her  mother,  Elizabeth 
Drake,  from  the  Morris  family.  She  had  con- 
sequently been  acquainted  with  Mrs.  Carter 
from  childhood.  Her  uncle,  the  Archbishop  of 
Armagh,  was  created  Lord  Rokeby,  which  title 
descended  to  her  nephew,  Matthew  Robinson, 
to  whom  she  bequeathed  her  husband's  vast 
possessions.  He  consequently  assumed  the 
name  of  Montagu. 

Mrs.  Montagu  was  endowed,  according  to 
Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  with  vanity  '  of  the  most 
contented  and  comfortable  kind,'  and  to  attend 
her  assemblies  was  to  drink  at  the  fountain- 
head.  Though  she  was  possessed  of  great 
vivacity,  a  sufficiency  of  learning,  a  large 
fortune,  and  a  fine  house,  her  excellent  cook 
alone  could  have  carried  on  the  war  sinorle- 
handed,  and  maintained  his  employer's  supre- 
macy over  all  other  competitors  as  undisputed 
'  Oueen  of  the  Blues.'  Mrs.  Montag^u  courted 
distinguished  authors,  critics,  artists,  orators, 
ecclesiastics,  lawyers,  and  travellers,  whilst 
she  patronised    their  minor   brethren,   if  they 


176  A    WOMAN    OF 

were  willing  to  pay  their  court  to  her.  All 
ambassadors  or  foreigners  of  note  she  enter- 
tained, and  occasionally  provided  some  royal 
or  distinguished  personage  upon  whom  the 
more  rustic  geniuses  might  gaze.  But  she 
could  never  accomplish  Mrs.  Vesey's  feat  of 
squaring  the  circle  :  even  the  very  chairs  and 
tables  seem  to  conspire  against  her,  and  form 
themselves  into  a  ring.  She  possessed  no 
power  of  harmonising  the  conflicting  elements 
of  which  her  assemblies  were  composed.  Her 
guests  arrived  in  a  mass,  and  each  individual 
departed  *  feeling  himself  single,  isolated,  and 
embarrassed  with  his  own  person.'  On  one 
occasion  about  twenty-five  women  formed  a 
barrier  round  the  fireplace  in  the  shape  of  *  a 
vast  half-moon,'  through  which  the  Chancellor, 
a  body  of  prelates,  and  other  eminent  men 
found  it  impossible  to  penetrate.  After  look- 
ing wistfully  towards  the  fire,  they  had  to 
content  themselves  with  drawing  chairs  from 
the  wall,  and  seating  themselves  solemnly  and 
silently  in  an  outer  crescent  of  their  own,  until 
such  time  as  the  exit  of  one  of  the  inferior  sex 
created  a  '  gap  for  the  wise  men  to  enter  in 
and  take  possession  of  the  fireplace ' — the 
instinctive     stronghold    of     the    Englishman. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  177 

For,  however  much  they  may  endeavour  to 
imitate  their  foreign  neighbours,  the  EngHsh 
are  after  all  a  home-loving  race,  and  our  fellow- 
countrymen  in  society  always  appear  more  or 
less  on  the  defensive  ;  therefore,  to  take  their 
stand  with  their  back  to  the  fire  gives  them 
that  feeling  of  assurance  that  standing  with 
their  back  to  the  wall  would  inspire  in  another 
kind  of  conflict. 

Mrs.  Montagu's  constant  pretension  caused 
the  '  Bas  Bleu '  set  to  be  accused  of  pedantry 
and  affectation,  from  which  most  of  its  in- 
dividual members  were  entirely  free.  Mrs. 
Carter's  sound  scholarship  sat  as  easily  and 
quietly  upon  her  as  upon  a  man  of  learning, 
and  her  knowledge  of  Greek  was  as  natural  to 
her  as  the  knowledge  of  spelling  to  an  ordinary 
woman.  The  name  of  Carter  alone,  Lady 
Louisa  assures  us,  is  of  sufficient  importance  to 
prove  that  Mrs.  Montagu  was  not  without 
sincere  and  valuable  friends.  But  she  was 
surrounded  not  only  by  flatterers  of  the  more 
common  sort— whose  high-flown  compliments 
grew  in  extravagance  as  those  who  inter- 
changed them  cooled  towards  each  other,  and 
could  only  be  checked  by  the  ridicule  of 
Horace  Walpole  or  Soame  Jenyns — but  also 

N 


178  A    WOMAN    OF 

by  good,  honest  people  whose  organs  of  admira- 
tion unduly  predominated  over  those  of  dis- 
crimination. These  simple  souls  in  all  truth 
and  integrity  would  pour  forth  their  hearts,  and 
call  the  attention  of  the  young  to  all  that  could 
improve  their  minds.  Lady  Louisa  found  her- 
self pulled  by  the  sleeve  with  '  My  dear,  did 
you  listen  to  what  Mrs.  Montagu  said  ?  Did 
you  mind  what  Miss  Hannah  More  observed  ? 
or  what  Mr.  Harris  [afterwards  Lord  Malmes- 
bury]  replied  ? '  The  discourse  of  the  most 
learned  men  and  women  must  sometimes  be 
trivial,  and  Mrs.  Montagu  and  Mr.  Harris 
might  at  that  moment  be  debating  whether 
from  the  appearance  of  the  sunset  fair  or  foul 
weather  might  be  looked  for  on  the  morrow. 
Miss  Gregory,  whom  Mrs.  Montagu  had 
almost  adopted  as  a  daughter,  possessed  the 
sense  of  humour  to  enjoy  the  comedy  that  was 
daily  enacted,  but  she  would  never  permit  a 
word  to  be  said  that  in  any  way  detracted  from 
her  hostess. 

The  chief  honour  and  felicity  of  Mrs.  Mon- 
tagu's life  was  derived,  she  declared,  from  the 
superior  merits  of  her  friends  (for  principles, 
opinions,  and  habits  are  acquired  from  those 
with  whom  we  live  most)  ;  she  was  cautious  and 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  179 

even  a  little  ambitious  in  the  choice  of  them,  not 
in  the  vulgar  sense  of  the  word,  but  her  honest 
ambition  was  to  establish  friendship  with  the 
'  wise  and  virtuous.'  In  Mrs.  Carter  she  found, 
no  doubt,  as  she  did  in  Lord  Lyttelton,  'not 
only  the  most  sincere  and  amiable  friend,  but 
the  best  instructor  and  director  of  her  studies, 
the  companion  and  guide  of  her  literary 
amusements,  without  whom  she  would  have 
lost  her  use  and  importance  in  society  ;  for  her 
house  when  he  appeared  in  it  was  a  school  of 
knowledge  and  virtue.' 

When  Mrs.  Montagu  built  her  palace  in  the 
north-west  corner  of  Portman  Square,  which 
combined  '  the  nobleness  of  greatness  in  a 
moderate  space,'  Mrs.  Carter  wrote  to  her: 

*  I  never  think  of  your  house  in  Portman 
Square  as  other  folks  think  and  talk  about  it : 
as  a  magnificent  house,  and  a  fine  house,  and 
an  elegant  house — though  all  this  is  very  true 
— but  as  a  house  containing  a  great  quantity  of 
air,  which  I  trust  will,  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
be  a  means  of  preserving  your  health.  I  wish 
you  as  much  enjoyment  of  its  magnificence  as 
magnificence  can  bestow  ;  but  magnificence  is 
an  idea  of  form  and  ceremony.  Comforts  and 
conveniences  are  the  every-day  necessaries  of 

N  2 


i8o  A    WOMAN    OF 

life,  and  the  materials  of  constant  cheerfulness  ; 
the  sunshine  without  which  the  palace  would 
be  a  dungeon,  and  with  it  the  "  vinegar  bottle  " 
(as  I,  who  live  in  a  vinegar  bottle,  experience) 
a  pleasant  habitation.'  When  we  look  with 
admiration  on  the  solid  buildings  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  we  recall  with  astonish- 
ment Mrs.  Carter's  wish  that,  for  the  safety  of 
society,  some  lawful  method  could  be  found  for 
the  punishment  of  those  wretched  builders, 
whose  carelessness  and  villainy  had  exposed 
Mrs.  Montagu  to  dangers  that  only  a  timely 
discovery  had  been  able  to  avert. 

The  trouble  which  Mrs.  Montagu  received 
from  the  curiosity  of  people  to  see  her  im- 
provements at  Sandleford  was  the  natural 
penalty  of  'I'embarras  des  richesses.'  Nobody 
plagued  Mrs.  Carter  by  besieging  her  doors  in 
carriages  or  upon  pillions  to  see  her  cottage. 

From  her  wind-swept  little  habitation  at 
Deal  Mrs.  Carter's  thoughts  sometimes  followed 
her  friend,  Mrs.  Montagu,  who  had  no  distemper 
but  what  is  common  to  all  fine  ladies,  the  form- 
ing of  more  engagements  than  it  is  possible  to 
digest ;  she  figured  her  sitting  in  her  dressing 
room,  perplexed  with  messages  and  answering 
notes,  longing  to  run  away  from  *  Courts  and 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  i8i 

Countesses,'  her  mind  hardly  able  to  push  and 
squeeze  its  way  through  visits,  dinners,  assem- 
blies, notes,  letters,  bricks,  mortar  and  wain- 
scot, and  Mr.  Stewart  (Athenian  Stewart). 
Or  else  her  imagination  placed  Mrs.  Montagu 
beneath  a  green  tree  at  Sandleford  where  her 
nerves  were  fluttering  at  full  liberty  after  the 
crowded  rooms  of  London,  the  bustle  of  society, 
and  the  turmoil  of  this  work-a-day  world. 
Having  escaped  from  the  embarrassments, 
forms,  and  frivolities  of  polite  life  to  the  pure 
and  unsophisticated  joys  of  the  country,  she 
found  herself  perfumed  by  roses  and  honey- 
suckles, and  serenaded  by  nightingales ;  zephyrs 
had  flown  before  her  into  Berkshire  introducing 
summer  that  a  scowling  north-east  wind  had  not 
suffered  to  be  seen  in  Kent. 

A  fine  lady  must  be  always  in  extremes  ; 
from  the  '  beau  monde  '  she  looked  down  upon 
those  strange,  unlicked  creatures,  the  Misses 
in  the  country  towns,  and,  poor  souls !  how  the 
town  lady  would  despise  them  when  she  was 
herself  in  the  purer  air  and  in  all  the  heroics  of 
pastoral  surroundings.  Miss  Talbot  wondered 
how  anybody  could  live  in  a  place  where  vile 
houses  of  brick  and  stone  hinder  the  sight 
of  that  pure   azure  sky,   about  which  for  the 


i82  A    WOMAN    OF 

moment  she  was  in  high  rapture.  She  described 
the  progress  from  the  gay  town  lady  to  the  con- 
tented country  housewife.  First  the  tragedy 
princess  in  an  august  melancholy,  and  then  the 
pastoral  nymph  lolling  on  a  green  bank,  among 
roses  and  honeysuckle,  singing  sonnets  to  the 
zephyrs,  idle  indeed,  but  perfectly  rural.  In 
like  manner  did  Marie  Antoinette  enjoy  an  ela- 
borate simplicity,  and  imagine  her  artificially 
rustic  Arcadia  to  be  truly  pastoral. 

Mrs.  Montagu  found  it  very  agreeable  to 
see  no  human  creature  but  her  servants,  nor  to 
hear  an  articulate  sound  except  the  cuckoo's 
unvarying  note  ;  but  Mrs.  Carter  warned  her 
*  that  in  solitude  we  are  tempted  to  think  our- 
selves wise  and  virtuous  ;  these  short  and  im- 
perfect views  of  the  grandeur  and  dignity  of  the 
soul  should  incite  our  wishes  for  a  less  imperfect 
state,  and  encourage  a  cheerful  compliance  with 
the  humiliating  duties  of  our  present  condition.' 

Though  Mrs.  Montagu  extolled  the  simple 
pleasures  of  the  country,  '  that  general  feast 
nature  spreads  for  all  her  children,  to  which  she 
came  a  happy  guest,'  and  boasted  that  she 
wanted  not  Stewart,  Adams,  nor  Brown  (Capa- 
bility Brown)  to  build  her  a  palace  or  lay  a 
county  into  garden  for  her,  she  constantly  em- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  183 

ployed  these  artists  to  embellish  both  Sandle- 
ford,  her  home  in  Berkshire,  and  her  residence 
in  Portman  Square,  where  she  added  to  her 
already  large  house  the  room  of  the  Cupidons 
painted  with  roses  and  cupids,  and  the  '  feather 
room '  adorned  with  the  plumage  of  every  pos- 
sible bird,  her  pillars  of  verd  antique  and  the 
*  porte  cochere.  Of  Mrs.  Montagu's  '  feather 
room '  Cowper  wrote  in  1788  : 

'  The  birds  put  off  their  every  hue 
To  dress  a  room  for  Montagu. 
The  peacock  sends  his  heavenly  dyes, 
His  rainbows,  and  his  starry  eyes  ; 
The  pheasant,  plumes  which  round  infold 
His  mantling  neck  with  downy  gold. 
The  cock  his  arch'd  tail's  azure  show. 
And  river-blanched  the  swan  his  snow. 
All  tribes  beside  of  Indian  name 
That  glossy  shine  or  vivid  flame 
Where  rises  and  where  sets  the  day, 
Whate'er  they  boast  of  rich  and  gay, 
Contribute  to  the  gorgeous  plan. 
Proud  to  advance  it  all  they  can. 
This  plumage  neither  dashing  shower 
Nor  blasts  that  shake  the  dripping  bower. 
Shall  drench  again  or  discompose. 
But,  screen'd  from  every  storm  that  blows. 
It  boasts  a  splendour  ever  new, 
Safe  with  protecting  Montagu.' 

It  was  during  some  of  these  works,  when  Mrs. 
Montagu  had  been  complaining  of  bad  seasons 


i84  A    WOMAN    OF 

and  agricultural   depression,  that   Mrs.  Carter 
wrote  : 

'  It  grieves  me  to  hear  of  the  mischief  the 
rain  has  done  to  your  property.  I  am  interested 
in  your  "Menus  plaisirs,"  and  should  be  sorry 
that  the  fly  in  the  turnips  or  the  smut  in  the 
wheat  should  retard  the  completion  of  your 
elegant  room.' 

In  Mrs.  Montagu's  contribution  to  her 
friend  Lord  Lyttelton's  '  Dialogues  of  the  Dead,' 
there  is  a  conversation  between  Mercury  and  a 
modern  fine  lady,  Mrs.  Modish,  who  excuses 
her  unreadiness  to  cross  the  Styx,  not  on  the 
plea  of  conjugal  attachment  and  maternal  duties, 
but  a  glance  at  her  chimney-piece  showed  it 
crowded  with  engagements :  to  the  play  on 
Mondays,  balls  on  Tuesdays,  the  opera  on 
Saturdays,  and  card  assemblies  for  the  rest  of 
the  week,  and  though  late  hours  and  fatigue 
gave  her  the  vapours,  she  was  ambitious  to  be 
thought  *  du  bon  ton.' 

'"Bon  ton!'"  exclaims  the  astonished 
Mercury,  '  what  is  that,  madam  ?  ' 

Mrs.  Modish,  who  had  admired  and  aimed 
at  it  all  her  life,  answered  it  was  one  of  the 
privileges  of  '  bon  ton '  never  to  define  or 
be    defined.     Though    it   was    the    child    and 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  185 

parent  of  jargon,  she  could  only  explain  what 
it  was  not.  '  In  conversation  it  is  not  wit ; 
in  manners  it  is  not  politeness  ;  in  be- 
haviour it  is  not  address  ;  but  it  is  a  little  like 
them  all.' 

This  fine  satire  was  a  great  favourite  with 
the  town  and  showed  much  good  sense  ;  but 
with  all  her  talents  Mrs.  Montagu  did  not  pos- 
sess the  charm  of  simplicity.  Though  she  had 
a  sensible  and  penetrating  countenance,  and 
the  air  and  manner  of  a  woman  accustomed  to 
being  distinguished,  her  acquaintance  unfor- 
tunately could  remember  her  trying  for  this 
same  air  and  manner.  There  was  always  that 
half-conscious  effort  to  play  the  role  of  a  fine 
lady,  on  which  Mrs.  Carter  often  rallied  her. 
'  As  for  fashion,'  she  exclaimed,  '  whatever  Mrs. 
Montagu  does  7nust  be  right.'  When  she  was 
accompanying  Mr.  Montagu  rather  unwillingly 
on  a  visit  to  his  northern  property,  Mrs.  Carter 
wrote : 

'  It  ofrieves  me  to  think  that  instead  of 
soaring  into  regions  of  intellectual  delight,  your 
spirits  should  be  suffocated  in  the  damps  of  a 
coal-mine.  But,  after  all,  the  true  proof  of 
wisdom  is  doing  the  thing  which  ought  to  be 
done.      If  you   had  stayed  behind,  you  might 


i86  A    WOMAN    OF 

have  appeared  a  much  finer  lady,  and  a  much 
finer  genius,  and  might  have  sat  in  your 
Chinese  and  Athenian  rooms  and  have  written 
more  "  Dialogues  of  the  Dead,"  but  you  cer- 
tainly are  a  more  reasonable  being  in  accom- 
panying Mr.  Montagu,  and  assisting  him  in  his 
business,  and  the  entertainment  of  his  north- 
country  neighbours.' 

Mrs.  Carter  applauded  Mrs.  Montagu's  con- 
descension in  riding  pillion  for  some  hours  in 
every  day,  which,  though  it  degraded  her  from 
a  fine  lady  to  appearing  like  a  mere  reputable 
gentlewoman,  was  necessitated  by  the  wretched 
state  of  her  eyes,  that  betrayed  her  into  such 
blunders.  She  hoped  Mrs.  Montagu  would 
never  attempt  to  ride  a  single  horse,  but  get 
behind  some  good,  staid,  sober,  dull  man,  on  a 
dull  horse,  with  a  strong  leathern  belt  round 
his  coat,  on  which  she  might  take  good,  sure 
hold,  and  ride  much  more  safely  than  by 
mounting  a  Pegasus  of  her  own  guiding.  She 
also  begged  she  would  not  attempt  to  drive 
herself,  adding :  '  I  should  be  mighty  sorry, 
both  for  your  sake  and  my  own,  to  be  a 
cottage  or  a  church  in  your  way  ;  however,  if 
you  do  run  into  anything,  pray  let  it  be  John 
of    Gaunt's    Castle,    and    converse    with    the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  187 

melancholy  spectres  of  the  race  of  York  and 
Lancaster.' 

Mrs.  Montagu's  charities  were  on  the 
munificent  scale  that  rigid  economy  in  the 
administration  of  her  great  wealth  and  a 
wholesome  horror  of  debt  made  possible. 
When  she  was  in  doubt  as  to  whether  the  pur- 
chase of  a  new  '  whisky  '  (a  fashionable  carriage 
of  the  day)  might  be  deemed  an  extravagance, 
Mrs.  Carter  wrote  to  her  : 

'  In  general  the  best  relief  to  the  poor  is 
from  supplying  their  wants  by  means  of  their 
own  honest  labour  ;  therefore  our  expenditure 
can  only  be  ranked  amongst  the  vices  of 
useless  luxury  when,  by  too  great  expense  in 
employing  those  who  can  work,  there  is  not 
enough  reserved  for  the  relief  of  those  who 
cannot.' 

Whiskys  were  then  *  the  most  prevailing 
fashion  of  two- wheel  vehicles.'  They  were 
one-horse  chairs  of  the  lightest  construction, 
and  in  spite  of  Mrs.  Montagu's  qualms  of 
conscience  cheaper  than  any  other.  The  ease 
and  expedition  with  which  they  moved  enabled 
them  to  whisk  past  other  carriages.  Hence 
their  name.  The  whisky  curricle  had  a  more 
solid  appearance  than  the  whisky,  and  on  that 


i88  A    WOMAN    OF 

account  was  particularly  affected  by  the 
Quakers,  and  was  commonly  known  as  a 
Quake-chaise. 

Mrs.  Montagu  declared  she  would  be  per- 
fectly happy  if  dowlas  and  linsey-woolsey 
were  so  cheap  that  she  could  clothe  half  the 
parish.  Of  this  aspiration  Mrs.  Carter  warmly 
approved,  and  answered  : 

'  I  think  your  dowlas  shifts  and  chequered 
aprons  a  more  enviable  contrivance  than  the 
finest  birthday  trimming  that  ingenious  vanity 
ever  devised.  The  one  will  tarnish  and  fade, 
and  the  other  furnish  materials  for  a  "  sky-spun 
robe,"  which  may  figure  in  a  more  splendid 
assembly  than  any  Imperial  drawing-room 
below  the  stars.' 

After  all,  Mrs.  Carter  reflected,  large  pos- 
sessions often  prove  as  great  an  obstacle  to 
carrying  out  our  inclinatiQns  as  poverty.  For 
the  comfort  of  little  people,  be  it  remembered 
that  excess  is  as  strong  an  impediment  some- 
times as  defect ;  both  rich  and  poor  are  fet- 
tered by  external  things.  She  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Vesey,  to  whom  she  longed  to  pay  a  visit : 

'  I  cannot  get  to  you  because  I  have  not  a 
post-chaise ;  and  Mrs.  Montagu  cannot  get  to 
you  because  she  has  a  coal-mine.' 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  189 


CHAPTER    IX 

MRS.    VESEY 

Every  individual  that  strongly  engaged  Mrs. 
Carter's  affection  had  some  characteristic  and 
distinguishing  mark.  The  spirit  of  some 
enlivened  her  indolence,  while  her  quiet 
tempered  their  vivacity.  Mrs.  Vesey  she 
honoured  for  having  the  simplicity  of  a  little 
child.  Throughout  her  life  she  remained  as 
lively  and  picturesque  as  at  eighteen,  because 
'  those  sullen  demons,  turbulent  agitations,  sor- 
did principles  and  interested  schemes,  had  not 
put  to  flight  the  fair  forms  of  imagination,  which 
can  never  subsist  but  in  gentleness  of  disposi- 
tion and  simplicity  of  heart,  for  the  bustles, 
perturbations,  and  competitions  of  the  world 
are  much  more  destructive  than  the  ravages  of 
age.' 

To  these  characteristics  Mrs.  Vesey  owed 
her  perpetual  youth. 


I90  A    WOMAN    OF 

She  could  always  wave  a  fairy  wand,  and 
conjure    up     pleasures    and    amusements    all 
around  her  in  whatever  climate  or  element  she 
happened    to   be    thrown.       Her   imagination 
could  raise  up  palaces  and  coral  groves  beneath 
the   sea,    and   convert   a   pigeon-house    into  a 
dressing-room,  and  a  heap  of  brick  and  mortar 
into  a  walk  of  roses  upon  earth.     She  would 
be  more  amused  raising  fairy  visions  uninter- 
rupted   at    Lucan     (her    husband's    place    in 
Ireland)  than   in  mixing  with  the  gay  society 
of  '  geniuses  and  rational  parrots  '  in  Dublin. 
In  fact,  she  shared  Rousseau's  power  of  trans- 
porting himself  whenever  he  was  alone  into  an 
ideal  world,  where    he    made    for  himself  the 
society  he  liked,  and  found  all  those  blessings 
which  this  world   denied  him.     Though  there 
was  little  of  the  turbulent  in  the  composition  of 
the  Sylph   (as  Mrs.   Vesey  was  called  by  her 
friends),    the    uproar  of  a   stormy  sea  was  as 
much  adapted   to  her  sublime   imagination,  as 
the  soft  murmurs  of  a  gliding  stream   to  the 
gendeness  of  her  temper. 

Mrs.  Vesey  shared  with  Mrs.  Montagu  the 
honour  of  having  originated  the  *  Bas  Bleu '  as- 
semblies, but  according  to  Fanny  Burney  she  was 
'  gentle  and  diffident,  and  dreamed  not  of  any 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  191 

competition,  only  desiring  to  collect  celebrities 
under  her  roof,  and  without  attempting  to  shine 
herself,  or  be  accounted  one  of  their  number, 
she  had  the  happy  secret  of  bringing  forward 
talents  of  every  kind,  and  diffusing  over  the 
society  the  gentleness  of  her  character.  With 
no  advantage  of  appearance  and  manner,  she 
possessed,  with  a  reserve  of  good  sense,  that 
easy  politeness  that  gained  everyone  in  a 
moment,  and  had  the  almost  magic  art  of 
putting  all  the  company  at  their  ease.' 

By  the  dedication  of  her  poem,  the  '  Bas 
Bleu,'  Hannah  More  gave  Mrs.  Vesey  the 
preference,  not  only  of  Mrs.  Montagu  but  of 
any  philosopher  who  should  square  the  circle, 
a  feat  both  these  hostesses  were  constantly 
attempting  in  the  arrangement  of  their  chairs. 
Sometimes  in  Mrs.  Vesey's  anxiety  to  render 
all  her  guests  easy  with  one  another,  her  fear 
of  ceremony,  and  eagerness  to  break  a  circle, 
she  insisted  upon  everybody  sitting  back  to 
back,  the  chairs  being  drawn  into  little  parties 
of  three  together  in  a  confused  manner,  all 
over  the  room,  so  that  the  occupants  could  not 
catch  sight  of  their  neighbours  except  by 
twisting  their  necks.  But  such  was  Mrs. 
Vesey's  magic  power  that  she    could    arrange 


192  A    WOMAN    OF 

forty  people  in  her  room,  and  yet  contrive  to 
give  it  a  less  crowded  appearance  than  it  would 
have  with  a  dozen  people  filled  by  anyone  else. 
*  One  would  think,'  said  Mrs.  Carter,  '  that  you 
stript  the  souls  of  your  company  of  their  bodies, 
and  left  only  a  phantom  to  cover  their  naked- 
ness ;  yet  I  never  perceived  that  a  human  soul 
is  more  clearly  seen  through  at  your  assemblies 
than  at  any  other.' 

Though  Mrs.  Vesey  was  famous  for  her 
dexterity  and  skill  in  selecting  her  guests, 
owing  to  her  kindness  of  heart,  her  circle 
threatened  to  become  too  wide  for  comfort ;  so 
Hannah  More,  Mrs.  Carter,  and  Horace  Wal- 
pole  made  their  own  parties  for  her  assemblies, 
and  asked  and  excluded  just  whom  they  liked. 

'Our  last  "Vesey"  was  a  little  too  large,' 
wrote  Hannah  More,  *  and  had  too  many  great 
ladies.  We  are  agreed  to  keep  the  next  a 
secret,  but  poor  dear  Mrs.  Vesey  is  so  sweet- 
tempered  that,  though  she  vows  she  will  not 
mention  it  to  anybody,  she  cannot  help  asking 
every  agreeable  creature  that  comes  in  her  way.' 

Even  Mrs.  Vesey's  deafness  did  not  detract 
from  her  love  of  society.  With  numberless 
ear-trumpets  hanging  at  her  waist,  slung  about 
her    neck,  or  tossed   upon  the    chimney-piece, 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  193 

she  moved  about  among  her  guests,  and  in  her 
eagerness  to  participate  in  all  their  bons  mots 
she  would  hasten  from  one  group  to  another, 
carrying  her  stool,  cushion,  and  trumpets  with 
her,  and  often  thought  fit  to  change  her  place 
fifteen  times  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  But,  alas  ! 
encumbered  with  so  many  impedimenta  she 
invariably  arrived  at  the  moment  the  speaker 
had  become  the  listener,  and  in  her  haste, 
frequently  clapping  the  brazen  ear  of  the  trum- 
pet to  her  forehead,  pathetically  exclaimed,  '  As 
soon  as  I  come  near  nobody  speaks.'  In  vain 
her  guests  tried  to  explain,  but  the  Sylph, 
detecting  amusement  elsewhere,  had  already 
darted  off,  trumpet  in  hand,  in  hopes  of  better 
fare,  and  would  gently  murmur  her  disappoint- 
ment on  finding  herself  again  too  late. 

It  was  Mrs.  Vesey's  misfortune  to  raise  her 
expectations  too  high  for  the  condition  of 
mortality,  which  gave  her  that  perpetual  rest- 
lessness of  body  and  mind  that  harassed  and 
wore  out  both.  She  scarcely  ever  enjoyed  one 
object  from  apprehension  that  something  better 
might  possibly  be  found  in  another. 

The  singularity  of  her  personality,  and  the 
art  by  which  she  preserved  the  jarring  charac- 
ters that  composed  her  motley  assemblies  from 

o 


194  A    WOMAN    OF 

quarrelling  with  each  other,  was  to  her  friends 
a  matter  requiring  deep  investigation.  Her 
secret,  they  decided,  was  that  she  contrived  to 
put  all  her  guests  in  perfect  good  humour  with 
themselves,  and  without  any  appearance  of  flat- 
tery, effort,  or  design,  making  each  individual 
with  whom  her  enchanting  blue  room  was 
crowded  consider  itself  as  the  principal  and 
distinguished  object.  Wherever  people  imagine 
themselves  to  possess  the  first  place,  they  will 
always  be  in  wonderful  good  humour  with 
all  the  world,  and  external  war  is  at  an  end. 
This  art  would  have  been  impossible  to  attain 
if  Mrs.  Vesey  had  possessed  a  grain  of  vanity, 
but  as  she  had  no  merely  personal  feelings,  she 
had  an  infinite  deal  of  attention  to  bestow  in 
adapting  herself  to  the  feelings  of  others :  hence 
her  success. 

The  goodness  of  Mrs.  Vesey 's  heart,  and 
the  *  uncommon  turn  of  her  head,'  showed  *  a 
genius  of  that  eccentric  kind  which  is  mighty 
apt  to  be  accompanied  by  a  plentiful  lack  of 
common  sense.'  When  a  friend  who  was 
staying  with  her  in  the  country  was  ordered 
not  to  use  her  crutches  on  the  floor  for  fear  of 
slipping,  but  to  be  carried  downstairs  and  use 
them  on  the  gravel  walk,  Mrs.  Vesey  started 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  195 

up,  and  said  she  would  order  the  gardener 
immediately  to  gravel  the  drawing-room.  The 
dear  Sylph  would  also  a  la  Vesey  frequendy 
offer  Mrs.  Carter  a  lodging,  totally  forgetting 
that  she  had  long  before  engaged  her  only 
spare  room. 

Simplicity  and  absent-mindedness  were  her 
chief  characteristics,  she  could  hardly  remem- 
ber her  own  name.  '  What  has  become  of 
our  Sylph  ? '  Mrs.  Carter  wrote  ;  '  I  do  not 
know,  I  expect  she  hardly  knows  herself,  but 
I  hope  she  is  as  well  as  nervous  people  must 
ever  expect  to  be.'  During  a  severe  winter 
she  consoled  herself  with  the  reflection  that  the 
Sylph  would  be  in  no  danger  of  petrifaction, 
for  ether  does  not  petrify.  All  Mrs.  Vesey's 
domestic  arrangements  were  superintended  by 
her  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Handcock,  a  very 
practical  woman.  From  the  contrast  of  their 
endowments  they  were  known  as  *  Body  '  and 
'  Mind.'  When  Mrs.  Vesey  invented  a  coffee- 
pot with  all  the  essential  advantages  of  a 
beautiful  form,  Mrs.  Handcock  most  unreason- 
ably objected  because  the  lid  would  not  open 
to  put  in  the  coffee,  nor  the  spout  answer  to 
pour  it  out. 

Mrs.  Carter  wrote  sympathetically  : 

o  2 


196  A    WOMAN    OF 

'And  so  Mrs.  Handcock  had  no  taste  for 
your  new  invention.  But  she  is  an  intolerable 
common-sense  woman.  As  to  her  strange 
objections  that  the  pot  has  neither  spout  nor 
handle,  and  that  the  lid  will  not  open,  they  are 
quite  nugatory ;  for,  as  it  is  of  a  beautiful 
Etruscan  form,  it  answers  every  essential 
purpose  of  a  good  coffee-pot — except  the  pos- 
sibility of  making  coffee  in  it,  which  is  only 
a  mere  circumstance,  which  anyone  of  true 
genius  would  easily  overlook.' 

Mrs.  Vesey's  imagination  could  be  agree- 
ably amused  in  furnishing  her  new  dressing- 
room  so  as  no  mortal  dressing-room  was 
ever  yet  furnished,  and  making  it  enchanting 
with  the  decorations  devised  by  her  genius. 
Though  her  friends  were  attached  by  associa- 
tion to  the  '  dear  blue  room  '  in  Bolton  Row, 
they  felt  sure  of  finding  a  pleasant  apartment, 
of  whatever  shape,  size  or  colour,  wherever  she 
resided. 

But  unfortunately  for  her  immediate  be- 
longings, her  lively  imagination  had  also  the 
power  of  twisting  her  sister-in-law's  bad  cold 
into  a  paralytic  seizure,  and  her  own  ailments 
into  a  dozen  apoplectic  fits,  so  that  '  she  never 
had  recourse  to  hope,  if  she  could  catch  at  the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  197 

smallest  reason  for  despair,'  and  in  default  of  a 
dragon  had  always  an  objection  ready  to  any- 
thing that  tended  to  the  accomplishment  of  her 
own  wishes.  Mrs  Carter,  on  the  contrary, 
hated  to  dwell  on  anything  that  would  give  her 
pain,  and  never  believed  what  she  did  not  like 
till  she  could  not  possibly  help  it.  Mrs.  Vesey's 
little  misfortunes  and  vexations,  imaginary  and 
real,  made  her  friends  smile,  but  even  her 
servants,  who  were  exemplary,  were  moved  by 
her  charm,  and  found  it  impossible  to  resist  not 
only  her  will  but  her  wishes.  There  must, 
however,  have  been  something  wanting  in  the 
composition  of  the  Sylph,  for,  alas !  Mr.  Vesey 
understood  her  not. 

His  lack  of  appreciation  roused  the  indigna- 
tion of  her  devoted  circle  of  admirers,  but  is 
comprehensible  to  those  not  under  her  spell. 
When  Mr.  Vesey  was  made  a  Privy  Councillor 
in  Ireland,  her  friends  admitted  their  poor 
Sylph  would  have  preferred  his  being  appointed 
a  constable  or  churchwarden  in  England,  and 
that  his  home  in  Ireland  appeared  very  little 
'adapted  to  her  genius.'  It  was  a  mere  pro- 
saical  house,  full  of  mortal  comforts  and  con- 
veniences, without  a  particle  of  romance ;  in 
short,  Mrs.  Carter  declared  it  was  '  much  better 


198  A    WOMAN    OF 

adapted  to  the  wants  and  purposes  of  the  Right 
Honourable  Agmondisham  Vesey  than  to  those 
of  his  more  ethereal  partner.'  The  dear  old 
castle,  with  the  niches  in  its  walls,  she  valued 
beyond  everything,  and  the  display  of  Mr. 
Vesey's  correct  Grecian  taste  was  very  grievous 
to  her  poetic  imagination.  However,  she  con- 
trived to  pass  the  winter  at  Lucan  very  tolerably 
— at  least  judging  from  the  manner  in  which 
she  talked  of  it  afterwards,  though  it  was  true, 
Mrs.  Carter  added,  that  the  winter  of  which 
she  made  the  '  eloge  '  was  past. 

'  God  mend  her  health  and  give  her  better 
spirits,'  wrote  Mrs.  Carter  of  the  poor  Sylph, 
who,  like  all  excitable  people,  was  subject  to 
fits  of  depression.  *  By  all  means,  my  dear 
Mrs.  Vesey,'  she  wrote,  *  leave  Dr.  James  to 
swallow  his  own  powders,  and  Mr.  Vesey  to 
squabble  with  his  two  old  gentlemen,  and  get 
as  fast  as  you  can  to  Tunbridge ;  if  you  do  not 
find  health  in  the  springs,  you  will  at  least 
acquire  good  spirits  from  the  society,  but 
do  not  seduce  Mrs.  Montagu  into  any  of 
your  lively  schemes  for  being  diverted  to 
death.' 

Mrs.  Vesey  had  a  much  better  art  of 
amusing  herself  in  a  crowd  than  Mrs.  Carter, 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  199 

who  to  the  end  remained  just  as  many  degrees 
removed  from  a  rake  as  ever. 

Mrs.  Carter  was  exceedingly  disappointed 
at  the  Sylph's  rejection  of  a  scheme  for  visiting 
Walmer  Castle,  within  a  mile  of  her  house  at 
Deal.     *  But   I   expect,'  she  wrote,  '  it  is  Mrs. 
Handcock's  fault ;  she  probably  represented  it 
to  you  merely  as  a  pleasant  dwelling,  where 
you  might  eat  your  dinner  and  drink  your  tea 
like  any  modern  house.     If  she  had  told  you 
that    some    discontented    spectre    walked    its 
melancholy  rounds  every  night  along  the  grass- 
grown  platform,  the  attraction  would  have  been 
irresistible  to  your  curiosity.     She  might  have 
told  you    how  the    spirits  of  the    air  talk    in 
whistling  winds  through   its    battlements,  and 
the   angel   of  the  waters   dashes    the   roaring 
billows  at  its  foot.     Instead  of  alluring  you  by 
these  sublime  ideas,  I  suspect  she  dwelt  chiefly 
on  the  pleasure  you  would  confer  upon  a  couple 
of  mere   two-legged   human   creatures  ;    upon 
which  you  turned  about  and  said,  "  Why,  Mrs, 
Handcock,    we    can    meet    enough    of    these 
upon  the  Pantiles  !  "  and  so  the  die  turned  for 
Tunbridge.'     Sometimes  Mrs.  Carter's  friends 
would  take  a  cottage  at  Walmer,  '  for  the  con- 
venience  of  going   into    the   sea'  [bathing?]. 


200  A    WOMAN    OF 

*  'Tis  a  mighty  pretty  scheme,'  she  declared, 
'  for  Walmer  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  villages 
about  here,' 

When  Mr.  Vesey  died  he  left  '  the  Sylph,' 
to  the  great  indignation  of  her  friends,  wholly 
dependent  on  the  bounty  of  his  nephew,  who 
fortunately  proved  himself  worthy  of  the  trust. 
Though  Mr.  Vesey's  case  is  not  stated,  he 
secures  our  uninvited  sympathy,  as  his  ethereal 
partner  had  always  obtruded  her  superiority 
to  all  earthly  considerations  of  '  mere  mortal 
comforts  and  conveniences.'  When  he  was 
proposed  in  1773  as  a  member  of  the  Literary 
Club,  Burke  began  by  saying  he  was  a  man 
of  gentle  manners.  *  Sir,'  said  Johnson,  '  you 
need  say  no  more.  When  you  have  said  a 
man  of  gentle  manners,  you  have  said  enough.' 

Mrs.  Vesey's  friends  were  provoked  at 
'  their  dear  Niobe '  continuing  to  weep  so 
immoderately  for  what  they  considered  little 
deserved  her  tears — the  loss  of  Mr.  Vesey. 

'  Had  the  subject  been  ever  so  worthy,' 
wrote  Mrs.  Carter,  '  it  would  have  been  her 
duty  to  check  them,  but,  alas !  she  has  no 
resolution.' 

Though  Mrs.  Carter  had  no  personal 
experience,  she  might  have  imagined  the  pos- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  201 

sibility  of  there  being  something  in  the  tie, 
that  after  years  of  estrangement  would  in  the 
end  reassert  itself,  and  that  sorrow  would  be 
only  intensified  by  the  fatal  'too  late.' 

Poor  Mrs.  Vesey's  timorous  and  feeble 
mind  fluctuated  between  the  extremes  of  un- 
belief and  superstition  ;  though  tormented  with 
doubts  as  to  a  future  existence,  she  would 
start  at  the  sudden  opening  of  a  door,  expecting 
a  visit  from  her  departed  friends.  Mrs.  Carter 
wrote  to  her  on  this  matter  : 

'  I  am  flattered  to  find  I  agree  with  Mr. 
Burke.  Yes,  ask  your  own  heart ;  and  it  will 
tell  you  what  is  the  rule  of  life  that  best  directs 
it  to  grow  wise  and  good.  Be  thankful  for 
this  gracious  guidance,  and  never  listen  to  the 
ha.\(-/ea7^nmo^,  the  perverted  understanding,  and 
pert  ridicule  of  French  philosophers  and  beaux 
esprits,  who  would  persuade  you  it  is  best  to 
wander  over  a  wide  stormy  ocean  without  a 
pilot,  and  without  a  leading  star  ! ' 


202  A    WOMAN    OF 


CHAPTER   X 

LORD    BATH 

William  Pulteney,  Earl  of  Bath,  born  in  1682, 
the  poHtical  antagonist  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole, 
was  the  intimate  friend  of  Mrs.  Montagu.  At 
her  house  Mrs.  Carter  was  accustomed,  when 
in  town,  to  my  Lord  Bath's  society  almost 
every  day.  His  wit,  strong  sense,  knowledge 
of  the  world,  and  charm  of  manner  made  him 
the  admiration  of  society,  but  he  often  declared 
he  spent  no  time  so  happily  as  in  the  company 
of  Mrs.  Montagu  and  Mrs.  Carter.  His  letters 
to  Mrs.  Carter  were  found  after  her  decease, 
but  she  had  written  a  memorandum  that  they 
were  to  be  destroyed,  and  they  were  burnt  by 
her  executor. 

She  spent  the  summer  of  1761  in  the 
company  of  Mrs.  Montagu,  Lord  Bath  and 
Lord  Lyttelton,  at  Tunbridge  Wells,  where  the 
prospect   had    *  nothing   of    the    sublime    and 


WIl.l.IAM     I'ULTENEY,    EARL    OF    BATH 


i-><»ri  <j  f''i»>iiiH  l>y  Sir  Joshua  licyiiolils.  I'.K.A..  in  Ihc  Sittioii.il  l>nih\iil  G.illcry 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  203 

magnificent  rudeness  of  Bristol,  but  the  wild- 
ness  was  all  soft  and  agreeable  ' — surroundings 
amidst  which  the  geniuses  of  the  age  '  sported 
sentiment  from  morn  till  noon,  from  noon  to 
dewy  eye,'  and  wit  flowed  more  copiously  than 
the  springs.  It  was  owing  to  their  persuasions 
that  Mrs.  Carter  was  prevailed  on  to  publish 
the  collection  of  her  poems  which  appeared  in 
1762.  The  proposal  of  printing  these  trifles 
was  made  by  my  Lord  Bath,  who  desired  they 
might  be  dedicated  to  himself;  and  that  she 
might  be  under  no  kind  of  difficulty  added  that 
he  himself  would  write  the  dedication,  which  he 
did  in  a  style  exactly  suited  to  her  taste,  for  she 
had  such  an  objection  to  flattery  that  she  would 
not  even  allow  herself  to  say  what  she  really 
thought.  His  politeness,  his  constant  cheerful- 
ness, and  generous,  friendly  disposition  made 
her  indeed  heartily  esteem  and  love  him,  but 
she  declared  she  would  be  as  far  from  putting 
her  sentiments  into  a  dedication,  as  he  would 
be  from  allowing  her  to  do  so.  Of  her  verses 
addressed  to  Lord  Bath,  Archbishop  Seeker 
said  :  '  Why,  Madam  Carter,  you  have  not 
been  tolerably  civil  to  the  man.' 

Lord  Lyttelton's  verses  were  prefixed  to  the 
collection  of  Mrs.  Carter's  poems. 


204  A    WOMAN    OF 

It  was  supposed  at  one  time  that  Mrs. 
Carter  would  marry  my  Lord  Bath,  on  which 
report  Archbishop  Seeker  often  ralHed  her. 
In  answer  to  the  Archbishop's  most  maHcious 
message  of  condolence,  on  the  attentions  that 
Lord  Bath  was  reported  to  be  paying  to  Lady 
Abercorn  at  Tunbridge,  she  answered  in  the 
same  spirit,  and  asked  indignantly,  '  Did  my 
Lord  B.  ever  take  the  very  nosegay  from  his 
button-hole,  and  deliver  it  into  the  hand  of 
Lady  A.  ?  Did  my  Lord  Bath  ever  go  to  a  toy 
shop  and  purchase  a  knotting-shuttle,  painted 
all  over  with  cupids,  and  cages,  and  fishes  on 
a  hook,  and  present  it  to  Lady  A.  ?  And  may 
not  people  who  have  such  distinctions  to  boast 
of  bid  defiance  to  all  the  witcheries  of  Lady 
A.  ?  When  one  fine  gentleman  said  to  another 
fine  gentleman  upon  the  Pantiles,  "  She  talks 
Greek  faster  than  any  woman  in  England," 
pray  was  this  meant  of  my  Lady  A.  ?  Or  when 
the  market  folks  left  their  pigs  and  their  fowls 
to  squall  their  hearts  out,  while  they  told  each 
other,  **  Sartainly  she  is  the  greatest  Scollard 
in  the  world!"  was  the  person  they  stared  at 
my  Lady  A.  ?  ' 

*  It  is  true,'  she  admitted,  *  that  my  Lord 
Bath  does  sometimes  draw  his  chair,  in  a  sort 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  205 

of  a  kind  of  an  edgeway  fashion,  near  my 
Lady  A.  But  pray  consider  the  difference. 
It  is  by  mere  dint  of  scratching  and  clawing 
that  Lady  A.  can  draw  Lord  Bath — poor  man ! 
— a  few  plain  steps  across  the  Pantiles  ;  while 
we,  by  the  natural  power  of  sober  attraction, 
draw  him  quite  up  "  Tug  Hill  "  to  the  top  of 
Mount  Ephraim,  and  keep  him  there,  till  we 
are  quite  afraid  he  will  endanger  his  life  in 
returning.' 

The  disembarkation  of  Princess  Charlotte 
of  Mecklenburg  Strelitz  at  Harwich  owing  to 
bad  weather,  and  her  consequent  visit  to  Lord 
Abercorn  at  Witham  on  her  way  to  London, 
before  her  marriage  to  George  III.,  furnished 
the  Archbishop  with  fresh  matter  of  condol- 
ence, conveyed  through  Miss  Talbot,  w^ho 
wrote :  '  Alas,  poor  Miss  Carter,  what  joy  can 
anything  give  you  if  it  be  true  that  your  per- 
secutor, Lady  Abercorn,  lives  with  her  son  at 
Witham  ;  for  consider  that  after  being  the  sole 
object  of  all  eyes,  and  engrosser  of  all  admira- 
tion at  Tunbridge,  she  only  went  from  thence 
to  prove  to  the  world  that  not  only  could  Lord 
Bath  make  his  parties  with  none  but  her  lady- 
ship— but  even  the  Princess,  whom  so  many 
thousands  had  been  expecting  for  a  fortnight 


206  A    WOMAN    OF 

at  Greenwich,  could  find  no  one  fit  to  honour 
with  her  first  visit  to  England  but  Lady 
Abercorn.  You  may  talk  of  your  Apollos  and 
Minervas  as  long  as  you  please,  but,  after  this, 
never  let  me  contend  again  with  the  friends  of 
honest  Eolus  and  Boreas.' 

Princess  Charlotte  had  embarked  at  Cux- 
haven  on  August  28,  1761,  in  the  Royal 
yacht  '  Charlotte '  that  had  been  launched  the 
previous  summer  at  Deptford,  and  named  in 
honour  of  the  future  Queen.  The  crew  were 
clothed  at  his  Majesty's  expense  in  a  red 
uniform,  with  gold  lace  hats,  light  grey  stock- 
ings, buckles  and  pumps.  This  gala  costume 
must  have  hampered  the  handy  British  seaman. 
No  news  of  the  vessel  was  received  until  Sep- 
tember 6,  for  after  twice  sighting  the  coast 
of  England,  she  had  been  repeatedly  driven  off 
by  contrary  winds. 

To  persons  of  delicate  constitutions  sea 
voyages  are  sometimes  *  very  pernicious,'  but 
her  Highness,  though  one  day  in  hopes  of 
landing  on  English  ground,  and  the  next  in 
danger  of  being  driven  on  the  coast  of  Norway, 
continued  in  good  health,  and  diverted  herself 
with  playing  English  tunes  on  the  harpsichord. 
On  her  journey  to  St.  James's  she  was  refreshed 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  207 

at  Colchester  with  tea  and  coffee  handed  to  her 
simultaneously  by  two  of  the  principal  inhabi- 
tants, and  she  proceeded  to  Witham,  where 
Lord  Abercorn  provided  as  elegant  an  enter- 
tainment as  time  would  permit.  The  King's 
coach  and  servants  met  her  at  Rumford. 

Mrs.  Carter  found  during  her  stay  with 
Mrs.  Montagu,  Lord  Bath  and  Lord  Lyttelton 
at  Tunbridge,  that  *  two  public  breakfasts,  two 
days'  excursion  into  Sussex,  one  fit  and  a  half 
of  the  headache,  the  making  up  of  four  dozen 
franks,  and  then  falling  violently  in  love  with 
the  man  who  signed  them  [evidently  Lord 
Bath],  added  to  the  ordinary  routine  of  life  at 
the  W^eils,  left  her  very  litde  leisure  for  any 
other  occupation.' 

Her  real  opinion  of  the  man,  apart  from  all 
joking  or  fear  of  flattery,  was  shown  in  a  letter 
written  after  his  death,  in  which  melancholy 
event  she  felt  her  own  share  very  sensibly,  for 
she  said  '  most  truly  did  I  love  him.' 

None  of  his  friends,  she  declared,  would 
remember  him  longer,  or  with  equal  affection. 
With  all  his  talents,  that  rendered  him  the 
object  of  popular  admiration,  he  had  not  the 
least  tincture  of  vanity  and  importance.  Though 
he  excelled  in  conversation,  he  never  took  the 


2o8  A    WOMAN    OF 

lead,  or  assumed  that  superiority  to  which  he 
had  a  claim.  He  did  not  dictate,  dogmatise 
or  talk  essays  like  Lord  Bolingbroke,  or  mono- 
polise the  conversation  like  Lord  Granville, 
but  called  forth  the  powers  of  others.  He 
did  not  lead  up  to  pre-arranged  bons  mots 
like  Lord  Chesterfield,  all  was  natural  and 
easy,  and  his  wit  directed  to  whatever  chanced 
to  be  the  subject  of  the  moment.  Whether  in 
a  small  or  large  circle,  he  was  more  agreeable, 
entertaining  and  instructive  than  any  other  man 
of  his  time.  He  outshone  all  the  other  members 
of  the  Opposition,  known  as  the  '  Cobhamites ' 
or  '  Grenville  cousins '  assembled  at  Stowe. 
His  temper  always  appeared  equal,  there  was 
a  perpetual  flow  of  vivacity  and  good  humour 
in  his  conversation,  and  most  attentive  polite- 
ness in  his  behaviour,  which  was  not  the  effect 
merely  of  external  and  partial  good-breeding. 

Lord  Bath  was  accused  by  his  enemies  of  an 
undue  love  of  money,  that  instinct  of  accumula- 
tion often  the  besetting  sin  of  really  great  men. 
But  many  stories  told  to  his  disadvantage  reflect 
on  his  accusers.  Lord  Chesterfield  desired  to 
purchase  from  him  the  land  that  lay  between 
Chesterfield  House  and  Hyde  Park,  in  order  that 
his  view  might  not  be  obstructed.     To  oblige 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  209 

him,  Lord  Bath  agreed  to  sell  it  for  3,000/.,  al- 
though with  the  general  rage  for  building  the 
land  was  worth  more.  Lord  Chesterfield  made 
*  a  heavy  outcry '  against  Lord  Bath's  avarice 
and  extortion,  but  at  length  agreed  to  pay  the 
money,  and  then,  regardless  of  his  view,  imme- 
diately resold  the  land  to  a  builder  for  5,000/. 

In  1746  Lord  Bath  had  the  satisfaction  of 
being  Prime  Minister  for  very  little  over  forty- 
eight  hours,  but  he  reaped  none  of  the  h-uits  of 
office,  being  constantly  in  the  Opposition,  that 
he  not  only  supported  by  his  abilities,  but  car- 
ried on  chiefly  at  his  own  expense. 

Bishop  Newton  tells  us  that  his  love  of 
money  was  not  near  so  great  as  was  reported, 
for  in  that  age  of  prodigality  everyone  was 
deemed  covetous  that  paid  his  way  honestly, 
and  did  not  squander  his  money.  He  was 
strict  and  exact  in  all  his  accounts,  and  any 
attempt  to  impose  upon  him  he  considered  as 
an  insult  to  his  understanding.  Like  Hotspur 
he  would  'give  to  any  well-deserving  friend,' 
but  he  loved  a  bargain,  and  in  that  matter 
would  not  readily  yield  a  point. 

He  contributed  largely  to  the  education  of 
many  promising  young  men,  encouraged  learn- 
ing, and  subscribed  liberally  to  literary  under- 


2IO  A    WOMAN    OF 

takings.  He  dispensed  considerable  sums  in 
private  pensions,  and  it  was  affirmed  that  he 
gave  a  tenth  part  of  his  income  to  deserving 
charities.  He  never  stooped  to  unfair  methods. 
An  ingenious  rascal  begged  to  be  employed  by 
the  Opposition  in  opening  and  copying  letters, 
however  carefully  folded  and  sealed,  and  restor- 
ing them,  so  that  the  writer  himself  could  not 
detect  that  they  had  been  touched.  Lord  Bath 
sent  the  man  into  an  adjoining  room  with 
a  letter  sealed  with  a  finely  cut  coat  of  arms  ; 
after  a  quarter  of  an  hour  he  returned  with 
a  copy  of  the  letter,  and  the  cover  intact. 
Lord  Bath  merely  regretted  his  inability  to 
punish  so  dangerous  a  character,  and  bade  him 
seek  his  reward  elsewhere,  which  he  did  with 
success,  for  he  soon  after  found  employment  in 
the  Secretary  of  State's  office. 

Lord  Bath's  saving  propensities  were  in- 
stilled into  him  by  his  wife,  a  lady  who  had 
such  good  intelligence  in  the  *  Alley '  with 
Gideon  (the  Portuguese  Jew,  afterwards  created 
Lord  Eardley)  and  other  stockbrokers  that  her 
brother.  Colonel  Gumley,  called  her  dressing- 
room,  where  her  advisers  congregated,  the  Jews' 
synagogue.  Lord  Bath  possessed  such  implicit 
faith  in  his  wife's  financial  sagacity,  that  on  her 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  211 

marriage  he  gave  her  10,000/.  to  employ  and 
improve  as  she  pleased.  Having  increased 
this  sum  to  60,000/.,  she  refused  to  make  a 
will,  saying  to  her  lord,  that  she  owed  him  all 
she  had,  and  to  him  it  should  all  return. 

Though  Lord  Harvey  denied  that  she 
possessed  any  one  good  quality  but  beauty, 
Lady  Bath,  like  many  another,  was  a  wonder- 
fully agreeable  woman  when  she  was  in  a  good 
humour,  but,  possibly  owing  to  financial 
anxieties,  her  spirits  were  oftener  clouded  and 
overcast.  She  did  not  live  to  see  the  failure  of 
all  the  ambitious  schemes  of  family  aggrandise- 
ment for  which  she  and  Lord  Bath  had  toiled 
in  vain.  Soon  after  her  death  their  only  son. 
Lord  Pulteney,  died  of  fever  at  Madrid.  The 
agonies  of  grief  endured  by  Lord  Bath  are 
described  by  Bishop  Newton,  who  sought  to 
comfort  his  friend  with  the  reflection  that 
'  Man  walketh  in  a  vain  shadow,  and  disquieteth 
himself  in  vain ;  he  heapeth  up  riches,  and 
cannot  tell  who  shall  gather  them.'  Though  the 
truth  of  this  assertion  cannot  be  gainsaid,  it  was 
rather  an  ill-timed  reminder  that  no  heir  sur- 
vived to  inherit  Lord  Bath's  vast  accumulations. 

His  chaplain.  Dr.  Douglas,  declared  Lord 
Bath  was  of  all  men  the  best  and  easiest  to  live 

F  a 


212  A    WOMAN    OF 

with.  So  familiar  and  engaging  was  his  manner 
that  you  could  not  be  with  him  half  an  hour 
without  being  entirely  at  ease  ;  your  awe  of  him 
vanished,  while  your  respect  increased.  As  an 
orator,  Speaker  Onslow  described  him  as 
'  having  the  most  popular  parts  for  public 
speaking  of  any  great  man  he  ever  knew,'  and 
Walpole  feared  his  tongue  more  than  another 
man's  sword. 

But  In  spite  of  the  favourable  testimony  of 
his  friends,  It  has  been  truly  said  that  his  career 
was  marred  by  a  spirit  of  faction,  that  caused 
him  to  stake  his  whole  reputation  on  over- 
throwing Walpole,  and  later,  on  attempting  to 
get  rid  of  Pitt.  He  was  not  moved  by  any 
personal  enmity  to  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  or 
ambitious  views  of  supplanting  him.  He  liked 
the  man,  but  disliked  his  measures.  '  In  the 
protracted  course  of  this  contest  he  narrowed 
public  life  to  the  petty  conditions  of  a  duel,  and 
at  last,  for  reasons  which  no  on-looker  could 
understand,  fired  Into  the  air.  Thus  he  called 
down  upon  him  his  proper  Nemesis  ;  he 

'  Left  not  faction,  but  of  it  was  left.' 

In  1739  Lord  Bath  suffered  from  a  dan- 
gerous  illness,    that  cost  him   750  guineas  in 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  213 

physician's  fees,  and  from  which  he  was 
eventually  cured  by  a  draught  of  small  beer. 
Mindful  of  the  efficacy  of  simple  remedies,  in 
1763,  accompanied  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Montagu 
and  Mrs.  Carter,  he  had  recourse  to  the  Spa 
waters.  During  their  tour  he  appeared  to  be 
the  youngest,  liveliest,  and  healthiest  of  the 
whole  party.  He  preserved  that  freshness  of 
mind  which  in  his  younger  days  was  combined 
with  great  bodily  activity.  It  did  Mrs.  Carter's 
heart  good  to  see  with  what  universal  respect 
he  was  treated  by  all  people,  of  all  ranks,  and 
all  nations  at  Spa.  There  was  so  much  dignity, 
politeness,  and  good  humour  in  his  behaviour 
to  all,  that  he  well  deserved  the  attention  that 
was  paid  him.     The  following  year  he  died. 

Extract  from  Mrs.  Carters  verses  to  Lord 
Bath,  written  when 

'  Subdued  at  length  beneath  laborious  hfe, 
In  peaceful  age  the  harass'd  virtues  sink  to  rest. 

Yet  not  in  flovv'ry  Indolence  reclin'd, 
They  waste  th'  important  gift  of  sober  hours  : 
To  every  state  has  Heav'n  its  task  assign'd. 
To  ev'ry  task  assign'd  its  needful  powers. 

For  better  purposes  to  favour'd  man 

Is  length  of  days — tremendous  blessing  ! — given  ; 


214  A    WOMAN    OF 

To  regulate  our  life's  disorder'd  plan, 
And  purify  the  blemish'd  soul  for  Heav'n. 

Such,  gracious  Heav'n,  be  Pulteney's  setting  day. 
And  cheerful  peace  its  various  labours  close ; 
May  no  dark  cloud  obscure  its  soften'd  ray, 
Nor  ruffling  tempest  shake  its  calm  repose.' 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  215 


CHAPTER  XI 

SPA   AND    FOREIGN    TOUR 

Soon  after  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1763,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Montagu  and  Lord  Bath  persuaded  Mrs. 
Carter  to  make  a  tour  on  the  Continent  with 
them,  in  the  course  of  which  they  were  to  visit 
Spa  for  the  benefit  of  Lord  Bath's  health. 
They  were  also  accompanied  by  Dr.  Douglas, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  the  learned 
detector  of  literary  forgeries,  who  was  Chaplain 
to  Lord  Bath,  and  his  intimate  friend.  Mrs. 
Montagu  said  that  when  she  had  Mrs.  Carter 
she  had  nothing  to  wish  for  ;  and  Mrs.  Carter 
declared  she  would  even  enjoy  Mrs.  Montagu's 
company  in  a  ramble  by  moonlight,  amongst 
the  ruins  of  an  old  abbey.  This  wish  expressed 
more  than  a  thousand  speeches,  for  she  said, 
there  are  many  very  good  sort  of  folks  whom 
one  may  tolerate,  and  even  be  mighty  pleased 


2i6  A    WOMAN    OF 

with,   in   broad  sunshine  who  would  be  quite 
insufferable  by  moonlight. 

She  had  visited  Oxford  and  Blenheim  with 
a  set  of  very  well-meaning  folk,  some  of  whom 
were  dull,  some  were  peevish,  and  some  were 
in  love  ;  and  most  of  them,  even  in  their  natural 
state,  would  have  considered  a  consular  statue 
of  Cicero  and  a  waxen  image  of  Queen  Anne 
in  pretty  much  the  same  light,  so,  for  want  of  a 
companion  of  critical  taste  and  glowing  imagina- 
tion to  give  distinction,  the  whole  expedition 
made  her  heartily  weary.  She  could  enjoy  the 
pleasures  of  imagination  in  solitude,  or  in  still 
greater  perfection  with  a  companion  of  taste 
and  spirit,  but  to  be  bound  to  worthy  people, 
who  saw  no  difference  between  the  ruins  of  a 
Gothic  castle  and  a  square  brick  house,  the 
solemn  music  of  a  waterfall  and  the  sharpening 
of  a  saw,  and  that  never  allowed  her  to  dwell 
on  any  object  that  struck  her,  she  could  not 
endure.  These  uncongenial  companions  were 
nevertheless  a  set  of  literary  people  from  St. 
John's  Gate.  Before  they  had  gone  ten  miles 
they  were  seized  with  pangs  of  hunger,  that 
wreaked  its  rage  on  a  plum-cake  at  the  nearest 
village.  While  she  decorated  Waller's  grave 
at  Beaconsfield  with  laurels,  and  made  a  poetic 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  217 

excursion  to  the  top  of  a  hill,  treading  on 
hyacinths  and  violets,  and  conversing  with  the 
genius  of  the  wood,  the  literati  plodded 
prosaically  along  the  road,  and  described  her 
powers  of  climbing  as  merely  acrobatic. 

Mrs.  Carter  with  the  Montagus  and  Lord 
Bath  landed  at  Calais  on  June  5,  and  returned 
to  Dover  on  September  19  of  the  same  year. 
They  went  first  to  Spa,  then  after  a  short  tour 
in  Germany  proceeded  down  the  Rhine  into 
Holland  ;  and  thence  through  Brussels,  Ghent, 
Bruges,  and  Dunkirk  to  Calais  again. 

Their  equipages  consisted  of  a  coach,  a  vis- 
a-vis, a  post-chaise,  and  a  chaise-marine,  with 
ten  or  twelve  outriders.  A  vis-a-vis,  so  called 
from  the  fact  that  only  two  persons  could  sit 
facing  each  other,  was  a  narrow,  contracted 
coach,  where  it  was  possible  to  '  sit  warmer ' 
than  in  other  carriages,  and  was  so  confined 
as  to  prevent  passengers  being  tossed  about. 
Though  somewhat  higher  in  the  body  than  an 
ordinary  coach,  it  did  not  usually  exceed  it  in 
weight.  The  vis-a-vis  was  seldom  used  by  any 
other  than  persons  of  high  character  or  fashion. 

According  to  a  French-German  dictionary 
a  '  chaise-marine '  was  a  sedan-chair,  and  a 
'  chasse-maree '     a     fish-cart.       The     '  chaise- 


2i8  A    WOMAN    OF 

marine '  possibly  combined  the  advantages  of 
both. 

Mrs.  Carter  travelled  with  '  as  little  Incum- 
brance as  is  possible  for  any  animal  not  clothed 
with  wool  or  feathers,'  and  made  the  best  of  any 
difficulties  on  the  road ;  once  at  the  end  of 
a  journey  she  declared  that  she  felt  'pretty 
faint,  having  taken  nothing  but  serpents'  food 
[dust]  on  the  way.'  She  found  the  '  politesse 
et  empressement  pour  vous  servir'  of  the 
lower  orders  in  France  very  engaging,  though 
throughout  her  foreign  travels  she  was  struck 
with  the  infinite  inferiority  of  all  advantages 
when  put  in  competition  with  the  Bible  and 
Magna  Charta. 

There  was  a  little  perruquier  with  a  most 
magnificent  queue,  belonging  to  the  inn  at 
Calais,  who  was  her  second  page ;  she  adds, 
'  My  first  is  provided  for  me  by  my  Lord  Bath, 
a  little  French  boy  with  an  English  face.' 

This  'little  rogue  of  a  page'  was  ex- 
cessively entertained  when,  on  Mrs.  Montagu 
and  Mrs  Carter  inquiring  if  it  were  possible  to 
see  the  inside  of  a  convent,  a  nun  answered  : 
'  Pas  sans  y  rester  au  moins.'  Such  confine- 
ment would  hardly  have  suited  the  social  tastes 
of  the  '  Bas  Bleu  '  ladies. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  219 

The  roads  appeared  very  fine,  but  tore  the 
English  vehicles  all  to  pieces.  The  horses 
were  harnessed  with  ropes,  and  the  travellers 
were  thankful  when  they  arrived  with  no  worse 
accident  than  some  fractures  in  their  tackle, 
which  was  always  getting  out  of  gear. 

Lord  Bath's  coach  lost  one  of  its  hind 
wheels  half-way  between  Brussels  and  Liege  ; 
the  damage  took  two  hours  to  repair,  so  there 
was  no  hope  of  reaching  their  destination  by 
daylight,  which  was  desirable  in  the  lawless  and 
undisciplined  territory  of  Liege,  described  by 
Mrs.  Montagu  as  '  the  Seven  Dials  of  Europe.' 
However,  as  the  evening  was  fine,  except  for 
some  apprehensions  from  the  crippled  state  of 
the  coach,  they  went  on  in  good  spirits. 

Just  as  they  had  passed  the  Gate  of  Liege, 
which  is  situated  at  the  bottom  of  a  long  steep 
hill,  Mrs.  Montagu  and  Mrs.  Carter,  who  were 
in  the  vis-a-vis,  heard  a  violent  crash,  followed 
by  a  fearful  yelling  in  the  street,  which  the 
darkness  made  still  more  terrible.  They  found 
it  to  be  what  they  apprehended :  the  coach  was 
broken.  Nobody  was  hurt,  but  Mrs.  Montagu 
was  so  frightened  that  Mrs.  Carter  was  afraid 
she  would  faint.  In  this  perplexity  she  spied 
an   honest-looking  man   with   a  candle  at  the 


220  A    WOMAN    OF 

side  of  their  vehicle,  who,  to  her  great  comfort, 
could  speak  French,  so  she  begged  he  would 
let  her  come  into  his  house.  With  '  great  good 
nature  '  he  offered  to  call  an  English  gentleman 
who  lodged  with  him.  Here  she  procured 
some  hartshorn  for  Mrs.  Montagu,  and  by  the 
time  she  got  better,  my  Lord  Bath  and  Mr. 
Montagu  arrived  perfectly  unhurt. 

From  Liege  to  Spa  all  the  carriages  held 
out  very  well,  except  the  *  chaise-marine,' 
which  was  overturned.  The  little  page,  with 
whom  my  Lord  Bath  had  provided  Mrs. 
Carter,  gave  a  terrible  account  of  the  affair. 
*  A  gun,  which  was  deeply  loaded,  broke  in 
pieces  by  the  overthrow,  but  did  not  go  off' 

At  Spa  the  rains  were  perpetual,  and  they 
went  on  *  drinking  and  clothing  '  themselves  in 
water.  On  the  walks  of  the  Geronsterre  were 
seen  priests  and  Hussars,  beaux  and  hermits, 
nuns  and  fine  ladies,  stars  and  crosses,  cowls 
and  ribbons,  all  blended  together  in  the  most 
lively  and  picturesque  manner  imaginable.  As 
to  beaux  esprits,  Mrs.  Carter  thanked  her  stars 
she  had  neither  seen  nor  heard  of  such  trum- 
pery in  the  place,  and  there  seemed  to  be  none 
of  those  fashionable  pests  of  society,  the  bucks 
and  choice  spirits  among  them.     The  society  of 


\ 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  221 

Spa  was  the  least  factious  of  any  she  had  ever 
met  at  a  water-drinking  place  ;  for  there  were 
neither  quarrels,  nor  parties,  nor  lampoons  ; 
people  in  general  drank  their  water,  and  held 
their  toncrues.  Mrs.  Carter's  definition  of  a 
lampoon  in  a  country  town  had  relieved  her 
friend,  Miss  Talbot,  in  a  grievous  fit  of  the 
spleen.  In  Canterbury,^  she  said,  everything 
that  people  do  not  like  or  understand  is  com- 
prehended under  the  name  of  a  lampoon, 
whether  it  be  prose  or  verse,  song,  riddle, 
panegyric,  or  funeral  elegy. 

Our  countrymen  were  at  that  time  held  in 
good  repute  on  the  Continent.  An  old  French 
general  said  he  had  fought  against  them  with 
all  his  might,  in  order  to  gain  their  good 
opinion. 

Princess  Esterhazy  wished  to  be  introduced 
as  soon  as  possible  to  the  English,  but  desired 
to  take  her  own  time  as  to  the  rest  of  the 
company  ;  so  quiet  were  they,  that  Mrs.  Carter 
felt  a  little  foolish  at  hearing  a  foreigner  ob- 
serve maliciously  that  it  would  not  be  known 
there  were  any  of  her  countrymen  at  Spa  if  a 
footman  did  not  now  and  then  run  through  the 
street,  screaming  in  English  after  a  stray  dog. 

'  See  p.  52. 


222  A    WOMAN    OF 

She  was,  however,  scandalised  to  see  some 
of  her  *  compatriotes  '  whom  she  had  formerly 
known  with  pale,  decent,  unsophisticated  faces 
at  Bath  and  Tunbridge,  now  appearing  at  Spa 
in  glaring  Parisian  complexion.  *  It  is  pro- 
digious,' she  exclaimed ;  '  how  I  long  to  beat 
them.'  The  Comtesse  de  Choiseul  had  just 
come  from  Paris  with  a  face  like  a  coach 
wheel.  French  manners  seemed  to  be  grow- 
ing as  universal  as  their  language,  and  even 
German  gravity  appeared  to  have  '  culbute '  into 
French  philosophy.  It  was  quite  terrifying  to 
meet  a  chapter  of  German  Chanoinesses  all 
with  such  fierceness  of  countenance.  The 
most  complete  beauty,  however,  was  one  of 
their  order,  who,  with  nothing  to  put  one  in 
mind  of  the  Venuses  and  Helens  of  old,  had 
the  expression  and  countenance  of  an  angel. 

Everyone  at  Spa  was  preparing  to  pay  their 
court  to  Princess  Ferdinand  of  Prussia,  but  as 
a  hoop  was  absolutely  necessary,  Mrs.  Carter 
declined  the  honour  of  looking  silly  in  the 
Royal  presence,  for  no  hoop  had  she,  and  no 
hoop  did  she  design  to  have.  After  all,  the 
Princess  gave  a  dispensation  for  going  without 
hoops,  but  one  of  Mrs.  Carter's  severe  head- 
aches got  her  out  of  the  scrape. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  223 

Poor  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Prussia  suffered 
much  from  the  unkind  treatment  of  his  brother, 
Frederick  the  Great ;  this  hero,  as  Mrs.  Carter 
said,  'who  defied  Omnipotence,  this  philosopher 
sans  souci  who  was  the  slave  of  his  own  capri- 
cious humours  and  the  torment  of  all  who  had 
any  dependence  on  his  favour.'  At  Spa  Prince 
and  Princess  Ferdinand  were  very  gay  and 
joyous,  their  manners  were  unaffected  and 
agreeable,  and  '  Vive  la  bagatelle  ! '  seemed  to 
be  their  motto. 

The  Princess  was  a  most  indefatigable 
dancer ;  she  wore  a  cap  of  such  a  size  as  had 
never  yet  been  seen  upon  the  head  of  the 
tallest  plebeian  gentlewoman.  Her  Royal 
Highness  and  her  suite  were  the  most  extra- 
ordinary sight,  their  dresses  were  so  ridiculously 
stiff  that  they  put  Mrs.  Carter  in  mind  of  King 
Pharaoh's  Court  in  a  puppet  show.  They 
were  laced  within  an  inch  of  their  lives,  their 
stays  excessively  stiff,  and  their  stomachs  of 
an  amazing  length,  nearly  approaching  to  their 
chins.  But  what  struck  her  most  was  that 
their  features  were  at  a  dead  stand  ;  never  did 
anything  in  the  human  countenance  so  much 
realize  the  fable  of  the  Gorgon.  The  Princess, 
strange  to  say,  had  a  fine  complexion,  and  was 


224  A    WOMAN    OF 

as  pretty  as  it  was  possible  to  be  with  such 
a  stony  look.  As  for  her  French  pronunciation, 
all  that  could  be  said  of  it  was  *  Cela  ecorche  les 
oreilles.' 

Mrs.  Carter  declared  that  for  her  own  part, 
she  had  never  since  she  came  to  Spa  been  in 
love  to  signify,  except  with  a  Russian  Ambas- 
sador, a  pretty  little  man,  who  had  cast  the 
bear-skin,  and  did  not  at  all  resemble  the  plump 
gentleman  with  the  arrow  in  his  throat  on  her 
seal.  But  Mrs.  Montagu,  who  was  very  fond 
of  the  fine  folk  and  fine  things  of  this  nether 
world,  carried  on  an  infinite  flirtation  with  the 
Prince  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  *  en  attendant  le 
Roi  de  Prusse'. 

The  talents  of  this  Royal  Prelate  did  not 
appear  to  Mrs.  Carter  to  be  of  the  most  shining 
kind,  like  his  diamonds.  But  arrayed  in  a 
blossom-coloured  coat,  with  embroidered  star 
and  diamond  cross,  there  was  perfect  decorum 
and  much  good  nature  in  his  behaviour,  and  in 
his  religion  she  believed  him  to  be  perfectly 
sincere.  He  desired  her  not  to  have  the  head- 
ache the  evenings  she  was  engaged  to  dine 
with  him,  but  the  headache,  alas !  was  no 
flatterer  of  foreign  Princes.  In  the  midst  of 
this  society  of  grave  bishops,  serene  princesses, 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  225 

English  lords  and  ladies,  High  Dutch  barons, 
Low  Dutch  burgomasters,  and  Flemish  fat 
gentlewomen,  Mrs.  Carter  wrote :  *  Dining 
with  Princes  and  Princesses  to  be  sure  is 
one  way  of  life,  and  playing  at  penny  qua- 
drille is  another  ;  each  is  a  mighty  good  thing 
in  its  turn,  and  I  can  very  cordially  accom- 
modate myself  to  both  ;  but  in  spite  of  all 
the  honours  and  amusements  of  Spa,  I  look 
forward  with  great  delight  to  seeing  my  friends 
at  Deal  again.' 

On  their  return  journey  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Montagu,  Lord  Bath,  and  Mrs.  Carter  dined  at 
the  Haoue  with  Prince  Louis  of  Brunswick.  All 
the  Foreign  Ministers  were  there  ;  the  entertain- 
ment was  'very  noble,'  about  forty-five  dishes 
in  each  course.  They  crossed  from  Rotterdam 
in  a  vile  vessel  to  Moerdyke  ;  the  navigation  of 
the  river  so  near  its  mouth  was  very  unsafe, 
but  it  could  only  have  been  avoided  by  crossing 
a  ferry  four  miles  long,  where  the  father  of  the 
late  Prince  of  Orange  was  drowned  sitting  in 
his  coach.  Much  was  said  to  reconcile  the 
ladies  to  a  nocturnal  expedition,  but  they  were 
thunderstruck  at  the  information  that  they 
were  to  embark  and  sail  all  night ;  they 
found  the  cabins  and  beds  very  good  for  people 

Q 


226  A    WOMAN    OF 

who  could  breathe  without  air,  but,  having  no 
inchnation  to  be  buried  aUve,  they  insisted  on 
having  the  state  room  to  themselves  for  the 
night,  and  resigned  the  beds  below  to  the 
gentlemen,  who  were  so  charmed  with  them. 
As  to  my  Lord  Bath,  he  was  so  impatient  to  get 
into  his  delectable  hole  that  he  went  off  early  in 
the  afternoon  with  great  glee.  As  soon  as  they 
landed  they  procured,  as  fast  as  they  could, 
a  '  miserable,  ragged,  dirty  thing  called  a  coach,' 
and  hurried  away  to  Breda,  and  there  immedi- 
ately went  to  bed. 

At  Brussels  they  waited  on  Lady  Prim- 
rose, and  met  a  lady  who  desired  to  be  intro- 
duced to  them.  Mrs.  Carter  added  :  '  I  hap- 
pened to  be  in  a  talking  fit,  and  as  I  always  talk 
bad  French  much  more  boldly  than  I  do  good 
English,  there  was  no  end  to  my  larum  ;  so 
the  poor  soul  is  gone  home,  blessing  herself, 
and  crossing  herself,  and  praying  to  every  saint 
in  her  calendar  to  deliver  her  from  ever  more 
attempting  to  be  introduced  to  a  learned  lady.' 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  227 


CHAPTER   XII 

BODY   AND    MIND 


Mrs.   Carter  considered  long  life  a  '  tremen- 
dous blessing  ' ;   she  was 

'Joyful  to  live,  yet  not  afraid  to  die.' 

It  was  a  very  '  fashionable  maxim  '  that  people 
should  forget  their  friends,  and  drive  the 
remembrance  of  mortality  out  of  their  heads 
as  fast  as  possible.  But  the  thoughts  of 
death  did  not  depress  her,  for  she  never 
allowed  her  mind  to  dwell  on  the  physical 
aspect ;  in  all  her  meditations  on  the  sub- 
ject she  passed  at  once  from  this  life  to  a 
better.  Life,  with  all  its  toils  and  sufferings, 
is  mercifully  diversified  with  comforts  and 
pleasures  that  render  it  greatly  preferable  to 
non-existence.  Innumerable  joys  find  a  place 
amidst  the  evils  of  mortality  ;  we  suffer  only 
just  enough  to  reconcile  us  to  the  limits  of  our 
present  life,  and  to  make  us  look  forward  to 
that  which  is  to  come.     If  every  prospect  were 

Q2 


228  A    WOMAN     OF 

limited  by  the  grave,  what  horror  should  we 
feel  at  the  thought  of  quitting  a  world  full  of 
wonder,  beauty,  and  magnificence  !  How  terri- 
ble to  close  our  eyes  on  the  flowery  earth  and 
radiant  sun,  to  '  leave  the  warm  precincts  of 
the  cheerful  day,'  and  sink  into  a  cold,  dark, 
eternal  night !  To  lose  all  sense  of  intellectual 
pleasure  and  human  affection !  From  this 
dreadful  extinction  Mrs.  Carter  exclaimed, 
'  God  be  thanked  we  are  secured  ! '  Much  as 
she  was  attached  to  this  world,  she  heartily 
rejoiced  that  it  was  not  to  last  for  ever. 

Yet  she  had  little  curiosity  concerning  a 
better.  She  was  content  and  thankful  to  know 
that  those  who  endeavour  to  fulfil  the  conditions 
on  which  future  happiness  is  promised,  and  to 
perform  their  present  duties,  will,  when  the 
task  is  over,  infallibly  be  happy,  and  convinced 
that  He  Who  formed  our  capacities  for  happiness 
alone  knows  what  will  make  us  so.  *  We  can 
none  of  us,'  she  concluded,  '  feel  much  concern 
at  the  thoughts  of  being  divested  of  spasms, 
apoplexies,  fluttering  nerves,  and  aching  heads.' 
The  humiliation  of  mortal  frailty  can  never  be 
completely  subdued  but  in  that  state  where  alone 
the  '  spirits  of  the  just  '  will  be  '  made  perfect.' 

When  advanced  in   life   she  wrote  :  '  It  is 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  229 

my  birthday  ;  there  are  few  people  who  have 
so  many  reasons  to  be  fond  of  life  as  myself, 
and  yet  perhaps  there  are  not  many  to  whom 
the  thoughts  of  its  being  so  far  advanced  would 
give  less  concern.  In  a  course  of  travelling, 
though  the  road  be  ever  so  pleasant,  and  the 
company  ever  so  good,  one  cannot  help  some- 
times feeling  that  one  is  not  at  home,  and 
looking  forward  to  the  journey's  end.  How 
thankful  ought  we  to  be  that  there  is  at  last  a 
home,  where  all  who  do  not  wilfully  take  a 
wrong  path  will  be  sure  to  find  repose  and 
security,  which  in  the  most  prosperous  journey 
can  never  be  found  on  the  road.  Yet,  except 
in  cases  of  violent  pain,  life  has  always  its 
attractions,  and  the  weary  passenger,  though  in 
sight  of  home,  and  travelling  through  a  rough 
path,  yet  sees  on  either  hand  some  flowery 
spot,  or  hears  some  tuneful  note ;  and  thus 
charmed  by  colour  and  enlivened  by  song, 
walks  contentedly  on,  without  too  impatient 
wishes  for  the  end  of  the  journey.' 

She  had  always  been  struck  with  the  truth 
of  Seneca's  observation,  that  '  nothing  is  really 
great  which  is  not  calm  and  gentle,'  and  she 
scarcely  recollected  any  passage  in  antiquity  so 
melancholy  as  the  answer  of  a  celebrated  orator, 


230  A    WOMAN    OF 

on  being  asked  how  he  did  :  *  As  well  as  any- 
one can  who  is  turned  of  fourscore,  and  who 
considers  death  as  the  greatest  of  all  evils.' 
Death,  when  considered  without  any  regard  to 
futurity,  must  appear  dreadful  to  the  best  and 
wisest  of  men.  '  Such  brutes  as  Diosfenes 
and  Crates,  indeed,  might  treat  the  idea  of 
death  very  cavalierly  ;  might  throw  themselves 
on  the  first  dunghill  and  die  without  regret. 
For  what  motive  had  they  to  wish  to  live  ? 
They  cared  for  nobody  ;  and  the  world,  which 
in  this  matter  is  always  perfectly  just  and  well- 
bred,  returned  the  compliment,  and  nobody 
cared  for  them.'  When  asked  the  same  ques- 
tion, Mrs.  Carter  answered  :  '  As  to  your 
inquiries  of  how  I  do  ?  and  what  I  think  ?  I 
do  like  anyone  who  every  day  feels  increasing 
symptoms  of  the  depredations  of  time  on  a 
shattered  machine,  and  I  endeavour  to  think 
such  thoughts  as  befit  such  a  discovery.' 

Mrs.  Carter  held  it  to  be  a  very  unreason- 
able kind  of  impatience  to  quarrel  with  those 
elements  to  which  we  belong,  and  which,  with 
all  their  inconveniences,  we  are  generally  very 
unwilling  to  quit ;  yet  the  world  can  never 
bestow  any  real  and  secure  enjoyment,  unless 
it  is  connected  with  the  hope  of  a  better.     For 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  231 

the  dark  cloud  of  death  is  ever  impending  over 
the  gayest  scene,  and  the  trap-door  constantly 
opening  beneath  our  feet.  Surely  it  must  be 
worth  our  attention  to  try  and  penetrate  the 
shade,  and  discover  the  prospect  of  immortality 
and  happiness  beyond. 

No  one  can  dispute  Bourdaloue's  assertion, 
that  as  the  certainty  of  dying  is  more  assured 
than  any  other  truth  that  can  be  demonstrated 
or  proved,  the  only  way  to  annihilate  the  fear 
of  it  is  to  dare  to  look  it  in  the  face.  '  I 
must  die,'  wrote  Epictetus ;  'but  must  I  die 
groaning  ?  Why  should  I  not  depart  smiling, 
cheerful  and  serene  ? '  '  Keep  your  eye  steadily 
fixed  on  the  great  reality  of  death,'  he  added, 
'  and  all  other  things  will  shrink  to  their  true 
proportion.' 

Mrs.  Carter  agreed  with  a  friend  who 
wrote :  '  Death  is  almost  the  only  subject  that 
is  never  treated  of  in  conversation,  farther  than 
a  mere  uninteresting  fact.  Were  any  number 
of  persons  destined  to  embark  for  a  distant, 
unknown  country,  of  whom  some  might  be 
called  upon  to-morrow,  and  all  must  be  called 
thither  soon,  would  they  not  be  inquiring 
amongst  themselves  how  each  was  provided  for 
the  journey,  and  excite  each  other  to  despatch 


232  A    WOMAN    OF 

what  yet  was  possible  to  be  done,  and  might 
to-morrow  be  irretrievably  too  late  ?  Yet  the 
flight  of  time  is  mighty  apt  to  deceive  our 
observation.  How  seldom  is  it  that  the  mind 
can  rise  to  that  point  of  view  whence  it  sur- 
veys time  hurrying  on  towards  eternity,  and 
inviting  all  our  hopes  and  fears  to  follow.' 

A  French  preacher  observed  that  '  though 
we  know  we  must  die  we  are  not  persuaded  of 
it  because  we  do  not  know  when  or  how,  or 
under  what  circumstances.'  We  are  still  just  as 
we  were  in  childhood,  when  the  nurse,  whose 
authority  was  final  on  all  grave  subjects,  under 
severe  cross-examination  always  placed  the  life 
of  man  at  a  hundred  years,  regardless  of  the 
Psalmist's  opinion  to  the  contrary.  To  the 
small  child  who  '  felt  its  life  in  every  limb,' 
and  had  no  doubt  of  being;-  able  to  reach  its 
utmost  limit,  was  not  that  practically  eternity  ? 

An  attempt  to  recall  our  earliest  thoughts 
on  the  subject  shows  us  that  our  own  crude 
and  childish  notions  of  death  were  not,  after  all, 
far  removed  from  those  of  the  greatest  empire- 
maker  of  our  day,  to  whose  powerful  mind  the 
position  and  surroundings  of  a  resting-place  for 
the  *  sheer  hulk  '  he  had  once  inhabited  seemed 
of  supreme  importance.    As  children  in  imagina- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  233 

tlon,  we  localised  a  probable  spot,  it  may  be 
some  tiny  country  church,  occasionally  visited, 
where  our  forbears  lay,  the  prevailing  at- 
mosphere of  the  family  pew  forming  a  basis 
for  speculation  as  to  the  aspect  of  the  unseen 
vault  below.  Monotony  and  confinement,  in 
which  there  would  be  the  semi-consciousness  of 
a  sleepless  night,  summed  up  the  impression.  In 
London,  of  course,  the  neat  and  vacant  gravel 
enclosures  surrounding  the  churches  conveyed 
the  comforting  assurance  that,  in  town  at  least, 
no  one  ever  died,  though  in  the  darkness  of  a 
winter's  evening,  that  appeared  to  be  the  middle 
of  the  night,  when  the  wind  was  in  a  certain 
direction,  a  bugle  call  rang  clearly  out,  and 
represented  to  the  imagination  the  agitating 
phenomenon  of  the  last  trumpet.  These  early 
impressions  were  assisted  by  the  study  of 
Bunyan's  '  Pilgrim's  Progress,'  at  an  age  when 
the  beauty  of  its  language  could  not  be  appre- 
ciated, and  the  'foul  fiend  Apollyon '  with  his 
hideous  monsters,  and  Giant  Despair  of  grim 
and  surly  voice,  with  his  dark  and  nasty 
dungeon,  were  more  sensational  and  realistic 
than  the  instruction  about  the  Better  Land, 
which  even  the  hymn  admitted  to  be 

'  Far,  far  away.' 


234  A    WOMAN    OF 

Wandering  one  afternoon  into  a  country- 
church,  at  a  time  of  great  sorrow,  the  writer 
found  these  childish  and  heathenish  ideas  being 
actually  inculcated  by  the  following  hymn  for 
the  young  : 

'  Within  the  churchyard,  side  by  side, 

Are  many  long,  low  graves. 
And  some  have  stones  set  over  them. 
On  some  the  green  grass  waves. 

*  Full  many  a  little  Christian  child, 

Woman,  and  man,  lies  there  ; 
And  we  pass  near  them  every  time 
When  we  go  in  to  prayer, 

'  They  cannot  hear  our  footsteps  come, 

They  do  not  see  us  pass ; 
They  cannot  feel  the  warm,  bright  sun 
That  shines  upon  the  grass. 

Cr.     '  They  do  not  hear  when  the  great  bell 
Is  ringing  overhead  ; 
They  cannot  rise  and  come  to  church 
Dim.        With  us,  for  they  are  dead.' 

At  which  point  the  wheezing  organ  sank 
into  a  tragic  diminuendo,  to  convey  to  the 
children's  minds  the  helpless  and  hopeless 
sensation  of  those  who  could  not  rise  and  come 
to  church,  *  for  they  are  dead.'  It  is  only  fair 
to  add  that  the  concludino-  verses  mention 
the  resurrection,    though   the  materialistic  and 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  235 

earthly  aspect  In  which  it  is  often  represented 
is  entirely  opposed  to  St.  Paul's  explanation 
of  the  grain  of  wheat.  The  gloomy  and  morbid 
views  of  death  conveyed  by  the  words  : 

'  Soon  will  you  and  I  be  lying 
Each  within  his  narrow  bed,' 

ignores  the  fact,  that  the  one  place  where  we 
never  can  be  is  our  own  tomb,  unless  we  are 
buried  alive. 

Mrs.  Carter  wrote  to  Mrs.  Vesey,  who  had 
been  sinking  her  spirits  by  reflections  on  moss- 
covered  grave-stones,  '  Why  will  you  suffer 
your  imagination  to  fix  itself  on  the  dismal 
sound  of  the  passing  bell,  and  the  dark  chambers 
of  the  grave,  instead  of  teaching  it  to  wander 
through  the  regions  of  light  and  immortality, 
amidst  the  great  community  of  happy  spirits  ? 
You  love  society  ;  take  a  view  of  that  brilliant 
assembly  described  by  an  author  who  gives 
such  excellent  rules  for  securing  admission  to 
"  the  city  of  the  living  God  and  the  innumerable 
company  of  angels,  and  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect"  '  (Heb.  xii.  22,  &c.). 

If  the  mind,  like  Plato's  discontented  ghosts, 
only  hovers  over  that  scene  of  melancholy  and 
desolation,   without   penetrating  into  the  world 


236  A    WOMAN    OF 

of  life,  activity,  and  social  joy  beyond  it,  from 
which  the  gentle  spirits  of  those  we  mourn 
look  back  with  compassion  on  our  imperfect 
and  Insecure  enjoyments,  we  are  perpetually 
endeavouring  to  keep  up  their  connection  with 
our  own,  by  inviting  them  back  from  the 
unfading  blooms  of  paradise  to  a  participation 
of  our  mortal  roses  with  all  their  thorns,  instead 
of  accompanying  our  departed  friends  into  their 
happy  estate.  But  so  it  must  be,  for  while  on 
a  future  world  we  only  reason,  in  whatever 
relates  to  the  present  we  feel.  We  think  with 
pleasure  of  friends  now  vanished  out  of  sight, 
with  whom  a  few  months  ago  we  conversed 
familiarly  on  this  subject,  whose  minds  are  now 
open  to  these  astonishing  scenes.  What  clear 
views  they  have  of  those  great  truths  that  the 
foolish  bustle  of  this  world  obscures  ! 

Mrs.  Carter  anticipated  through  every 
change  of  existence  continued  enjoyment  in 
the  exercise  of  her  intellect  and  affections,  for 
she  said,  '  Wherever  God's  will  is  made  the 
supreme  object,  all  talents  and  all  opportunities 
become  great,  and  extend  their  consequences 
to  eternity ;  while  the  most  splendid  effects 
that  are  produced  from  merely  human  or  selfish 
motives  vanish  Into  nothing,  and  are  lost  in  the 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  237 

chaos  of  succeeding  events.  No  wonder  that 
the  joys  of  folly  should  have  their  completion 
in  a  world  with  which  they  are  to  end,  while 
those  of  a  higher  order  should  be  incomplete 
in  a  world  where  they  are  only  to  begin.  For 
when  death  once  drops  the  curtain  on  the 
harlequin  farce  of  versatile,  unmeaning  folly, 
all  hope  of  any  future  representation  is  for  ever 
lost.'  Two  things,  said  Epictetus,  are  mingled 
in  the  generation  of  man  :  body  in  common 
with  the  animals,  and  reason  and  intelligence 
in  common  with  the  gods.  Many  incline  to 
the  kinship  that  is  mortal  and  miserable,  and 
few  to  that  which  is  Divine  and  happy. 

The  gentle  but  feeble-minded  Mrs.  Vesey, 
who  was  tormented  with  doubts  and  fears  on 
all  subjects  both  in  heaven  and  earth,  bid  Mrs. 
Carter  tell  her  what  no  mortal  can  tell,  the 
manner  in  which  soul  and  body  are  affected  by 
each  other.  She  answered,  '  Our  being  so  little 
able  to  account  for  a  point  so  intimately  near 
us  affords  a  striking  lesson  of  humility,  and 
should  check  our  idle  curiosity  in  other  in- 
stances of  truth  beyond  our  comprehension. 

'  In  vain  we  search  the  wondrous  cause  to  find 
How  mind  on  body,  body  acts  on  mind.' 


238  A    WOMAN    OF 

The  union  between  body  and  soul  must 
ever  be  unaccountable  to  all  human  researches. 
Dean  Swift  lost  his  understanding  while  he 
retained  robust  bodily  strength.  Bishop  Sher- 
lock preserved  the  whole  vigour  of  his  soul 
when  his  body  was  entirely  worn  out.  In  some 
the  powers  of  body  and  mind  sink  gradually 
together  in  a  gentle  decay.  Old  age  is  indeed 
a  sad  season  if  the  mind  goes  first,  but,  God  be 
thanked,  it  is  often  otherwise. 

Socrates  allowed  no  more  personal  existence 
to  the  material  and  visible  part  of  the  human 
composition  than  the  garment  that  covers  it 
—  a  speculation  Mrs.  Carter  thought  very 
fine  and  very  true.  Yet  she  said,  so  strong 
were  her  prejudices,  that  though  this  external 
nothing  was  only  a  circumstance  belonging  to 
her  friend  Mrs.  Vesey,  liable  to  be  overturned 
on  a  precipice  or  drowned  in  the  Irish  Sea, 
she  should  feel  very  differently  on  any  such  an 
accident  than  if  it  happened  to  Mrs.  Vesey's 
respectable  crimson  furred  cloak. 

Of  what  corporeal  identity  consists  not  all 
solutions  of  chemistry,  Mrs.  Carter  supposed, 
will  ever  be  able  to  unfold.  The  real  essence 
of  every  individual  body  may  perhaps  be  com- 
prised in  a  single  particle  of  a  texture  so  con- 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  239 

stituted,  as  to  resist  all  the  waste  and  impression 
of  time  and  accidents,  and  capable  of  being 
expanded  into  all  the  proportions  of  an  or- 
ganised form.  This  conjecture,  she  added, 
implies  no  contradiction,  and  seems  to  solve 
every  difficulty.  The  microscope  discovers  the 
largest  oak  to  be  contained  in  the  acorn,  and 
the  full  ear  in  a  grain  of  wheat,  the  very  simile 
of  which  St.  Paul  makes  use. 

The  Romans,  during  the  persecution  of  the 
Christians  under  Marcus  Aurelius,  must  have 
vaguely  felt  this  indestructibility  of  the  indi- 
vidual, for  in  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp,  not 
satisfied  with  killing  his  body,  they  threw  his 
ashes  into  the  river,  hoping  to  destroy  that 
essence  of  life  which  like  the  grain  of  wheat 
will  again  expand  into  a  spiritual  body. 

'  Our  views  on  mummies,' a  learned  friend 
lately  remarked,  '  depends  on  the  use  we  an- 
ticipate for  our  bodies  in  the  future.'  For  the 
absolute  material  shell  that  our  spirits  once 
inhabited  there  is  assuredly  none,  therefore 
the  method  by  which  it  returns  to  mother  earth 
once  more  to  join  in  the  eternal  process  of  re- 
vivification, is  immaterial,  but  for  that  essence  or 
germ  through  which  our  bodies  of  humiliation 
will  be  *  made  like  unto  His  glorious  body,'  the 


240  A    WOMAN    OF 

use  will  be  eternal.  Dr.  Johnson  reminds  us 
that  the  grain  which  is  sown  is  not  the  same 
as  the  grain  which  grows,  but  that  it  is  enough 
if  there  be  such  a  sameness  as  to  distinguish 
the  identity  of  person.  We  may  smile  at  the 
idea  of  those  sects  who  have  thought  any 
mutilation  of  the  body  in  this  life  would  injure 
it  for  the  next,  and  therefore  would  not  permit 
even  the  necessary  amputation  of  a  limb,  but 
the  root  of  the  idea  is  a  beautiful  one.  In 
childhood,  any  attempt  to  criticise  the  appear- 
ance of  our  fellow-creatures  was  promptly 
checked  by  a  severe  reminder  that  people  do 
not  make  themselves,  whereas  by  every  thought, 
word,  and  deed,  by  every  trick,  habit  and 
expression  they  are  every  day  making  them- 
selves, not  only  their  minds  but  their  bodies, 
both  for  time  and  for  eternity,  and  should  be 
striving  with  both  towards  perfection.  Their 
characters  have  built  up  everything  but  the 
mere  shell.  Beauty  from  within  is  neither  skin- 
deep  nor  fleeting  as  we  were  taught,  and  what- 
ever the  outer  frame  may  be  like,  wherever  the 
beauty  of  the  mind  and  spirit  shine  out,  every 
fresh  line  adds  force  and  character,  and  shows 
the  greatness  of  the  soul  within.  Only  those 
deform  that  come  from  a  narrow,  envious,  hard 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  241 

and  frivolous  disposition.  Though  the  influence 
of  heredity  cannot  be  denied,  we  are  descended 
from  what  Carlyle  calls  such  a  *  cartload  of 
ancestors  '  that  the  influence  of  one  may  neutra- 
lise that  of  the  other,  and  we  are  practically 
free  to  follow  what  is  good  in  the  best  of  them. 
Warning  is  as  valuable  as  example.  The  pro- 
cess by  which  our  bodies  will  decay  and  our 
personality  remain  unchanged  is  even  now 
taking  place,  for  science  teaches  us  that  every 
particle  changes  in  seven  years,  and  yet  that 
same  indestructible  individuality  continues 
throughout  our  lives.  The  resurrection,  if  ac- 
cepted according  to  St.  Paul's  spiritual  teach- 
ing and  not  obscured  by  the  materialistic  ideas 
of  our  own  earthly  minds,  solves  all  doubts  as 
to  our  retaining  our  individuality  and  powers 
of  recognition  in  eternity.  Even  the  ancients, 
when  they  looked  on  the  unearthly  beauty 
and  majesty  of  death,  intuitively  felt  its  resem- 
blance to  sleep. 

Mrs.  Carter  found  among  the  innumerable 
advantages  of  true  religion  was  that  of  its 
freeing  the  mind  from  the  terrors  of  super- 
stition. She  wrote  to  Mrs.  Vesey,  who  was 
tormented  with  doubts  about  a  future  state  : 

'  Why  did  you  start  and  turn  your  eyes  to 

R 


242  A    WOMAN    OF 

the  opening  door  ?  Ah,  my  dear  Mrs.  Vesey, 
the  heart  is  wiser  and  honester  than  the  head. 
If  at  that  hour  of  silence  and  solemn  thought 
Lady  Anne  [Dawson]  had  been  permitted  to 
stand  before  you,  could  even  that  have  been 
more  convincing  than  the  voice  of  common 
sense,  which  with  intuitive  perception  assents 
to  the  truth  of  eternal  revelation,  and  pro- 
nounces it  impossible  that  such  virtue  could 
ever  die.' 

Mrs.  Carter's  mind  was  'perpetually  thwarted 
and  held  back  by  the  weakness  of  her  body, 
and  her  intellectual  pursuits  interrupted  by  a 
weak  head  and  fluttering  nerves,  that  no  change 
of  air  or  water  would  affect,  but  the  air  of 
paradise,  and  the  waters  which  are  bordered  by 
the  tree  of  life.'  She  knew  something  of  the 
contention  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks,  the  war- 
fare of  the  flesh  and  the  spirit. 

Her  mind,  Mrs.  Chapone  said,  should  have 
been  joined  to  a  Herculean  body,  which  could 
have  supported  its  share  of  the  fatigues  of  so 
active  a  companion.  In  the  quarrels  of  Mrs. 
Carter's  body  and  mind,  she  was  inclined  to 
side  with  body,  who  as  she  suspected  met  with 
hard  usage  from  its  towering  mate,  who  seemed 
to  treat  it  with  disdain,  and  hardly  acknowledge 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  243 

it  as  a  companion  and  partner.     Mrs.  Chapone 

declared  she   would    in    fact   as    soon   be    Dr 

Jortin's  wife ;  and  yet  it  had  always  been  her 

prayer  that  she  might  never  be  the  wife  of  an 

overgrown  scholar. 

In   1740,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,   Mrs. 

Carter   wrote   the    following   dialogue   on    the 

subject : 

'  Says  Body  to  Mind,  "  'Tis  amazing  to  see, 

We're  so  nearly  related,  yet  never  agree, 

But  lead  a  most  wrangling,  strange  sort  of  life, 

As  great  plague  to  each  other  as  husband  and  wife. 

The  fault's  all  your  own,  who  with  flagrant  oppression 

Encroach  ev'ry  day  on  my  lawful  possession. 

The  best  room  ^  in  my  house  you  have  seized  for  your  own. 

And  turn'd  the  whole  tenement  quite  upside  down, 

While  you  hourly  call  in  a  disorderly  crew 

Of  vagabond  rogues,^  that  have  nothing  to  do 

But  run  in  and  out,  hurry  scurry,  and  keep 

Such  a  horrible  uproar,  I  can't  get  to  sleep. 

There's  my  kitchen  ^  sometimes  is  as  empty  as  sound, 

I  call  for  my  servants,'*  not  one's  to  be  found  : 

They  all  are  sent  out  on  your  Ladyship's  errand, 

To  fetch  some  more  riotous  guests  in,  I  warrant  ! 

And  since  things  are  growing,  I  see,  worse  and  worse, 

I'm  determin'd  to  force  you  to  alter  your  course." 

Poor  Mind,  who  heard  all  with  extreme  moderation, 

Thought  it  now  time  to  speak,  and  make  her  allegation  : 

"  'Tis  I  that,  methinks,  have  most  cause  to  complain, 

Who  am  crampt  and  confin'd  like  a  slave  in  a  chain. 

'  The  head.  ''  The  thoughts.  '  The  stomach. 

'  The  spirits. 

R  2 


244  A  WOMAN    OF 

I  did  but  step  out,  on  some  weighty  affairs, 

To  visit,  last  night,  my  good  friends  in  the  stars, 

When,  before  I  was  got  half  as  high  as  the  moon, 

You  dispatch'd  Pain  and  Languor  to  hurry  me  down  ; 

Vi  et  armis  they  seiz'd  me,  in  midst  of  my  flight. 

And  shut  me  in  caverns  as  dark  as  the  night." 

'"Twas  no  more,"  reply'd  Body,  "than  what  you  deserv'd; 

While  you  rambled  abroad,  I  at  home  was  half  starv'd, 

And,  unless  I  had  closely  confin'd  3'ou  in  hold, 

You  had  left  me  to  perish  with  hunger  and  cold." 

"  I've  a  friend,"  answers  Mind,  "who,  tho'  slow,  is  yet  sure, 

And  will  rid  me,  at  last,  of  your  insolent  pow'r : 

Will  knock  down  your  mud  walls,  the  whole  fabric  demolish, 

And  at  once  your  strongholds  and  my  slav'ry  abolish  : 

And  while  in  the  dust  your  dull  ruins  decay, 

I  shall  snap  off  my  chains  and  fly  freely  away."  ' 

The  above  dialogue  was  no  doubt  intended 
to  show  that  as,  to  the  Christian,  divorce  and 
suicide  are  ahke  impossible,  body  and  mind 
during  their  temporary  connection  must,  by  a 
system  of  give  and  take,  find  a  modus  vivendi, 
and  like  an  ill-assorted  couple  try  not  to  let 
their  diverse  interests  and  inclinations  clash,  till 
at  last  something  like  real  harmony  will  grow 
up.  The  body  if  its  weaknesses  are  neglected 
will  revenge  itself,  and  always  manage  to  have 
the  last  word.  The  note  of  triumph  in  the  last 
two  lines  expresses  the  release  of  the  mind, 
which  at  death  flies  freely  away  from  that  '  dull 
clog  the  body,'  just  as  in  our  dreams,  unfettered 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  245 

by  distance  and  a  thousand  other  disabilities, 
we  pass  at  once, 

'So  swift  a  pace  hath  thought,' 

into  the  society  of  our  friends  and  the  enjoy- 
ment of  unrestrained  intercourse.  The  sense 
of  detachment  of  body  and  mind  is  more 
common  amongst  Eastern  nations,  and  apart 
from  all  differences  of  creed,  accounts  for  much 
of  their  indifference  to  death:  that  feeling  that 
St.  Paul  expresses  as  '  whether  in  the  body  or 
out  of  the  body  I  cannot  tell,  God  knoweth.' 

The  prospect  of  a  solitary  passage  through 
the  heavy  road  and  dim  twilight  of  our  con- 
cluding journey   Mrs.    Carter  admitted  was  a 
melancholy    idea,    but   happily    there   are  few 
cases    in    which  it  is  verified.       Divine  good- 
ness raises  up  successive  comforts  through  the 
whole  of  our  progress,  which  alleviates  our  sor- 
row for  those  we  have  lost.     '  Every  individual 
that  strongly  engages   our  affection  has   some 
characteristic  and  distinguishing  mark.     Thus, 
while  our  present  companions  assist  us  to  pur- 
sue our  journey  with   cheerfulness  and  spirit, 
the  regret  for  those  whom  we  have  lost  gives 
a   delightful    prospect   of  our   arrival    at    that 
home  where  human  happiness  will  be  rendered 


246  A    WOMAN    OF 

complete  by  the  assembly  of  all  those  who 
have  assisted  us  through  different  stages  of  our 
mortal  passage.' 

Mrs.  Carter  acted  on  Dr.  Johnson's  advice 
and  kept  her  friendship  in  constant  repair. 
For  if  a  man  does  not  make  new  friends  as 
he  advances  through  life,  he  will  very  soon 
find  himself  alone. 

Pascal  wrote  :  *  II  est  injuste  qu'on  s'attache, 
car  on  n'est  la  fin  de  personne.' 

The  end  of  all  living  creatures  Mrs.  Carter 
argued  was  happiness.  The  pleasure  and 
affection  we  feel  in  the  fine  qualities  of  our 
associates  is  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
reasonable  sources  of  human  happiness.  To 
justify  this  attachment  it  is  not  necessary  that 
we  should  be  the  '  end  '  and  sole  object  of  our 
friends,  it  suffices  that  we  should  be  a  means  of 
their  happiness.  Pascal  continues  :  '  Mais  il 
est  injuste  que  Ton  s'attache,  parce  que  nous 
mourrons. '  '  Cela  se  r^pond  fort  naturellement, ' 
exclaimed  Mrs.  Carter  :  'nous  revivrons.'  '  May 
we  not  delight  in  our  friends  because  they  may 
be  separated  from  us  for  a  time  ?  An  attach- 
ment that  does  not  look  beyond  the  grave  is 
unworthy  of  being  immortal.  When  one  con- 
templates this  present   life,  not  as  a  separate 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  247 

state,  but,  as  it  is  in  truth,  apart  of  eternity,  the 
objection  that  we  must  die  does  not  affect  the 
question.' 

Pascal's  notions  of  duty  appeared  to  Mrs. 
Carter  to  be  the  outcome  rather  of  a  severe 
and  gloomy  temper  than  to  be  founded  on  the 
cheerful,  social  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  He  was, 
however,  to  be  esteemed  and  compassionated 
for  having  turned  the  edge  of  that  severity 
chiefly  on  his  own  ease.  It  was  not  in  the  New- 
Testament  that  poor  Pascal  found  a  direction 
for  wearing  a  spiked  girdle.  What  a  monstrous 
fabric  of  absurdities  enthusiasm  and  supersti- 
tion have  erected  on  that  simple  plan  which 
Divine  wisdom  has  proposed  in  the  Gospel ! 

'Very  few,'  she  added,  'have  sufficient 
strength  of  mind  not  to  be  hurt  by  great 
numbers  of  what  are  called  good  books.  I  am 
not  setting  all  serious  reading  at  defiance. 
Heaven  forbid  !  But  it  is  most  devoutly  to  be 
wished,  people  would  make  their  Bible  their 
principal  study.' 

Mrs.  Carter's  opinion  of  Pascal  is  merely 
quoted  for  what  it  is  worth.  Whether  his  book 
'  Les  Pens^es '  is  studied  from  a  religious  or 
from  merely  a  literary  point  of  view,  it  must  be 
admitted  to  be  one  of  the  most  perfect  works 


248  A    WOMAN    OF 

existing  in  the  French  language,  and  is  incom- 
parable in  depth  and  beauty.  Even  Voltaire 
allowed  that  Pascal  was  a  model  of  eloquence 
and  humour.  Mrs.  Carter's  horror  of  'goody- 
goody  '  books  has  been  shared  by  many  seri- 
ous thinkers,  who  deplore  the  mischief  done 
by  them.  But  had  she  lived  in  the  twentieth 
century  what  would  she  have  thought  of  the 
religious  novel,  that  is  often  irreligious  and 
even  sacrilegious  ?  Sacred  subjects  are  lightly 
handled  and  even  dragged  through  the  mud, 
and  that  by  some  of  our  most  brilliant  writers. 
By  harping  on  three  strings  they  insure  an 
eager  audience.  They  appeal  to  the  weary  and 
heavy-laden  hearts  that,  disappointed  with  the 
distorted  view  of  religion  presented  to  them 
through  human  agencies,  are  ready  to  hear  any 
new  thing  concerning  those  vital  questions  of 
life  and  death  with  which  they  are  at  times 
confronted.  By  sailing  as  near  the  wind  as 
they  dare,  along  the  thin  imaginary  border  of 
virtue  and  vice,  they  pander  to  the  idle  curiosity 
of  those  who  desire  to  penetrate  the  *  mystery 
of  iniquity.'  Finally,  they  appeal  to  the  masses 
by  a  caricature  of  social  circles  into  which  many 
of  their  readers  have  no  other  means  of  access. 
For  instance,  when  the  fundamental  truths  of 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  249 

Christianity  are  treated  as  though  they  could  be 
lightly  discarded  and  as  lightly    resumed,  our 
humanity  and  common  sense  are  affronted  ;  for 
it  is  assumed  that  our  faith  rests  only  on  miracles, 
while  the  Great   Personality  of  their  Worker, 
that  alone  makes  them  credible,  is  lost  sight  of 
From  Hannah  More,  who  was  her  zealous 
and  attached  friend  for  near  thirty  years,  Mrs. 
Carter  differed  in  religious  views,   '  just  enough 
to  exercise  their  mutual   charity.'      To    Mrs. 
More,  though    she  loved   her    honest,   correct 
heart,    cultivated    intellect,    and    calm,   orderly 
mind,     Mrs.     Carter    appeared    to    be    '  most 
strictly  High  Church,'  for  she  dreaded  nothing 
so  much  as  irregularity,  and  scrupulously  fore- 
bore   reading   any   book,  however    sound    and 
sober,  which  proceeded  from  any  other  quarter. 
She  would  on  no  account  read  Doddridge  or 
Pascal. 

To  Mrs.    Vesey — 1766 

'  Yet  check  that  impious  thought,  my  gentle  friend. 
Which  bounds  our  prospects  by  cur  fleeting  breath. 

Which  hopeless  sees  unfinish'd  Life  descend, 
And  ever  bars  the  prison  gates  of  Death. 

'  Ah  !  what  is  Friendship,  if  at  once  disjoin'd  ? 
The  sympathetic  tie  unites  no  more  ; 
Ah  !  what  is  Virtue,  if  below  confined  ? 
The  fruitless  struggle  of  a  toilsome  hour. 


250  A    WOMAN    OF 

'  To  perfect  good  thro'  each  progressive  stage 
The  pow'rs  of  intellectual  being  tend, 
Nor  raging  elements,  nor  wasting  age. 
Shall  e'er  defeat  their  Heav'n-appointed  end. 

'  To  perfect  joy,  from  pain  and  chance  secure. 

The  sighing  heart  springs  upwards  from  the  dust, 
Where,  safe  from  suff 'ring  and  from  frailty  pure, 
Unite  the  social  spirits  of  the  just. 

'  O'er  the  sad  relics  of  our  mortal  clay 

No  more  let  Fancy  sink  in  hopeless  grief ; 
But,  rais'd  by  Faith  to  happier  views,  survey 
The  blooming  forms  of  renovated  life.' 

'  Thus  amidst  the  wastes  of  Mortality,  the 
havoc  of  raging  elements,  and  the  dissolutions 
of  consuming  years,  the  thoughts  look  forward 
to  a  period  of  restoration,  and  anticipate  the 
voice  of  the  Archangel  proclaiming  to  a  reno- 
vated world  '*  that  time  shall  be  no  more." ' 


Miss  Catherine  Phillimore  has  kindly  al- 
lowed me  to  add  her  beautiful  translation  of 
Aleardo  Aleardi's  poem,  in  which  he  compares 
the  horse  and  his  rider  to  soul  and  body 
engaged  in  the  battle  of  life,  which  like  the 
Italian  races,  with  their  fierce  struggle  for  the 
Palio,  is  more  a  fight  than  a  race. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  251 

'  God  hath  knit 
The  Soul  and  Body  in  one  mystic  bond, 
As  horse  and  rider,  and  then  sent  them  forth 
To  run  their  course  upon  the  race  of  life. 
Along  the  way  the  strife  is  permanent — 
And  now  the  rider  with  decided  voice 
The  steed  controls,  and  now  with  sudden  swerve 
The  horse  has  thrown  his  rider  in  the  dust. 
Yet  joined  together  onwards  still  they  pass 
O'er  gently  swelling  slope  through  forest  dark, 
Flying  o'er  dreary  marsh  and  pleasant  plain. 
Until  at  last  one  day  the  charger  falls 
Worn  out,  his  strength  all  spent — 

The  hollow  tomb 
Gives  back  the  echo  of  his  dying  groan. 

'  Free  to  his  feet  the  rider  springs 
And  seeks  the  face  of  Him 
Who  counts  alike  each  victory  and  each  fall.' 


As  an  octogenarian  Mrs.  Carter  travelled 
every  winter  by  '  diligence '  to  London,  where 
she  found  most  of  her  friends  had  already 
assembled,  and  '  the  birthday  '  brought  the  rest. 
She  usually  set  out  from  Deal  by  moonlight 
at  8  r.M.  and  reached  Clarges  Street  at  11  a.m. 
the  following  day.  The  first  part  of  the  road 
was  safe  from  robbers,  and  daylight  protected 
the  travellers,  before  they  reached  Hanging 
Wood,  where  the  highwaymen  deposited  their 
ill-gotten  gains  in  a  cavern,  that  could  only  be 


252  A    WOMAN    OF 

explored  by  a  detachment  of  cavalry  and  foot. 
They  did  not  breakfast  till  they  could  do  so 
in  security  at  Dartford.  Mrs.  Carter's  friends 
made  a  great  outcry  at  her  mode  of  travelling, 
but  she  assured  them  there  was  no  hazard,  and 
that  she  found  it  much  easier  than  '  drawling 
through '  two  days  and  sleeping  on  the  road. 
In  January  1801,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  she 
dined  with  Lord  Cremorne  on  the  day  of  her 
arrival,  and  felt  no  subsequent  fatigue,  though 
owing  to  the  state  of  the  roads  she  had  been 
'  jolted  black  and  blue.'  She  considered  her- 
self lucky  in  avoiding  a  heavy  snow-storm, 
and  only  complained  that  the  dirt  of  the 
London  streets  prevented  her  taking  enough 
exercise. 

On  December  24,  1805,  Mrs.  Carter  arrived 
in  Clarges  Street  for  her  usual  winter  season. 
She  was  able  to  dine  with  a  few  of  her  nearest 
friends.  Her  whole  life  had  been  a  preparation 
for  death,  and  she  was  ready  when  the  sudden 
call  came.  She  spoke  very  little  during  her 
last  short  illness,  even  to  Lady  Cremorne,  her 
most  devoted  friend,  who  never  left  her,  and 
on  February  19,  1806,  in  her  eighty-ninth 
year,  her  happy  spirit  passed  away  without  a 
struggle. 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  253 

Her  body  was  interred  in  the  burial-ground 
of  Grosvenor  Chapel,  in  connection  with  St. 
George's,  Hanover  Square,  in  accordance  with 
her  desire  that  it  should  be  buried  *  with  as 
little  expense  as  possible '  wherever  she  died. 


APPENDIX 

GENEALOGICAL   NOTE 

BY  ROBERT  BRUDENELL  CARTER,  F.R.C.S. 

The  recent  inquiries  of  Mr.  Francis  Gallon  and  others 
into  the  influence  of  heredity  lend  much  support  to 
the  belief  that  '  the  life  of  every  man  is  to  some  extent 
written  before  he  is  born,'  and  that  a  knowledge  of 
past  family  or  racial  influences  is  of  definite  value  as 
an  aid  to  the  correct  appreciation  of  character. 

Elizabeth  Carter  was  descended  from  a  landed 
family  of  moderate  estate,  which  was  settled  from  an 
early  period  in  Bedfordshire,  and  sent  branches  into 
the  adjacent  counties  of  Buckingham  and  Hertford. 
A  common  ancestor  was  Thomas  Carter,  of  Higham, 
in  the  county  of  Bedford,  who  was  seated  there  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  IV.,  and  is  mentioned  in  the  records 
of  the  Heralds'  College  as  bearing  arms,  '  Azure,  a 
talbot  statant  between  three  round  buckles,  or.'  On 
the  tomb  of  one  of  his  descendants,  William  Carter, 
erected  in  Kempston  Church  in  1702,  it  is  said  that 
the  body  of  the  deceased  was  brought  for  burial  to  the 
parish  in  which  his  family  had  '  possessed  an  estate 


256  A    WOMAN    OF 

ever  since  the  Conquest ' ;  but  this  statement  is  perhaps 
only  the  expression  of  local  tradition.  Thomas  Carter 
of  Higham  had  three  sons,  of  whom  one,  Richard,  is 
described  as  '  of  Bedford,'  and  left  descendants  who 
became  landowners  in  the  contiguous  parishes  of 
Offley  and  Lilley,  in  the  county  of  Herts,  while 
another  son,  William,  and  a  third,  Nicholas,  are  de- 
scribed as  '  of  Kempston,  in  the  county  of  Beds.' 
All  that  is  known  of  Nicholas  is  that  he  was  Groom 
of  the  Stole  to  Henry  VHI.,  and  that,  among  manu- 
scripts in  the  British  Museum,  there  is  an  authority 
to  him  to  make  purchases  of  sheep  and  beeves  for 
the  victualling  both  of  the  King's  household  and  of 
his  intended  military  expedition  beyond  the  seas. 
The  instrument  is  dated  March  i8,  15 13-4,  and  evi- 
dently refers  to  the  expedition  to  Calais  in  that  year. 
Nicholas  Carter's  will  is  in  the  Northampton  registry, 
and  he  divided  his  property  between  his  sons,  John 
and  Bartholomew,  of  whom  there  is  no  further  record. 
Nicholas  Carter's  brother  William  was  a  landed 
proprietor  at  Kempston,  and  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  VH.,  the  arms,  already  mentioned,  were 
completed  by  the  grant  of  a  crest,  '  Out  of  a  mural 
crown,  or,  masoned  azure,  a  demi-monkey  proper.' 
This  crest  was  probably  in  recognition  of  the  work  of 
a  member  of  the  family  who  was  received  and  rewarded 
by  the  King  on  returning  from  a  voyage  to  '  the  New 
Isle,'  i.e.  America.  William  Carter,  whose  will, 
proved  in  1500,  is  in  the  Northampton  registry,  was 
succeeded  at  Kempston  by  his  son  Thomas,  and  he 
by  his  son  William,  with  whom  the  pedigree  of  Carter 
of  Kempston  in  the  Bedfordshire  Visitation  of  1634 


Photo^r.iph  by  lil.ilic  .'-  Eii^ar.  Bedford. 

INSCRIPTION  ON  THE  ANCELL  MONUMENT  ON  THE  NORTH  WALL 
OF  THE  CHANCEL  WITHIN  THE  SANCTUARY,  GREAT  BARFORD 
CHURCH,  CO.  BEDFORD  (nR.  ST.  NEOTS). 

'  Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Thomas  Ancell,  son  and  heir  to  Edward  Ancell  of  West 
Mounton  in  the  county  of  Somerset  gent;  who  had  to  wife  EHzabeth  Whttley 
dauiihter  and  co-heir  of  Robert  Whetley  of  Gt.  Joneby  in  the  county  of  Cumber- 
land gent,  by  whom  he  had  issue  sonnes:  Whetley,  Oliver,  Thomas,  and  Nicholas 
and  left  Thomas  livinge  and  daughters  Agnes,  Rose,  Mary,  Temperance.  Elizabeth, 
Elizabeth  and  Anne,  whereof  he  bestowed  six  in  marriage  and  lift  live  of  them 
living  and  being  of  the  age  of  71  years  deceased  in  the  faythe  of  Christ  the  27th  day 
of  April  Anno  Dni    1591.' 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  257 

commences.  This  William  is  therein  recorded  to  have 
married  Elizabeth,  sister  and  sole  heir  of  William 
Cranfield,  of  Great  Barford,  in  the  same  county  ;  and 
the  son  and  heir  of  this  marriage,  also  William,  is 
recorded  to  have  married  '  Mary,  third  daughter  of 
Thomas  Aunscell,  of  Great  Barford,'  to  whom  and  to 
whose  family  there  is  an  elaborate  monument  in  Great 
Barford  Church,  a  monument  on  which  four  sons  are 
sculptured  kneeling  behind  their  father,  and  seven 
daughters  behind  their  mother,  and  on  which  the 
arms  of  both  husband  and  wife  (daughter  and  heir  of 
Robert  Wheatley  of  Great  Joneby  in  the  county  of 
Cumberland),  are  displayed.  The  marriage  of  William 
Carter  and  Mary  Aunscell  was  a  prolific  one,  for  upon 
his  tomb  in  Kempston  Church  there  are  two  brass 
plates,  one  of  which  bears  the  following  inscription  : 

'  Here  lieth  the  bodie  of  William  Carter,  Gent, 
who  tooke  to  wife  Marie,  the  daughter  of  Thomas 
Aunsell,  Esq.,  by  whom  he  had  issue  seaven  sones 
and  ten  daughters.  He  died  the  first  day  of  Sep- 
tember, 1605.  She,  surviving,  in  memorial  of  her 
affection  to  him  living,  caused  this  monument  to  be 
made  over  him.' 

The  second  plate  bears  a  rude  engraving,  which 
appears  intended  to  represent  the  '  seaven  sones ' 
mentioned  in  the  inscription.  The  baptisms  of  six 
of  the  sons  and  nine  of  the  daughters  are  duly 
recorded  in  the  Kempston  register,  as  well  as  the 
marriages  of  six  of  the  daughters  ;  but  the  Visitation 
record  mentions  only  the  eldest  son,  Thomas,  who 
succeeded  to  the  estate,  and  two  of  his  brothers. 

In  course  of  time,  the  branch  of  the  family  which 

S 


258  A    WOMAN    OF 

had  settled  at  Offley  came  to  be  represented  by 
William  Carter  of  that  place,  who  had  sons,  William, 
Thomas  and  Robert,  of  whom  the  two  elder,  at  least, 
became  active  on  the  side  of  the  Parliament  in  the 
Civil  War.  'WilliamCarter,  of  Offley,  gent.,' appears  in 
the  list  of  the  Hertfordshire  Parliamentary  Committee  ; 
and  William  Carter,  with  no  local  designation,  and 
no  prefix  of  '  Rev.,'  preached  before  the  House  of 
Commons,  on  their  solemn  fast,  August  31,  1642,  a 
sermon  entitled  '  Israel's  Peace  with  God,  Benjamine's 
Overthrow.'  He  received  the  thanks  of  the  House, 
and  the  sermon  was  published  by  order.  The  two 
younger  brothers,  Thomas  and  Robert,  both  settled 
at  Dinton,  in  the  Vale  of  Aylesbury,  a  village  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  John  Hampden,  and 
where  Simon  Mayne  was  lord  of  the  manor.  William 
and  Thomas  married  sisters,  Frances  and  Jane,  daugh- 
ters of  William  Curtis,  of  Bassingbourne,  in  the  county 
of  Cambridge,  the  place  in  which  the  mother  of  Oliver 
Cromwell  resided  during  her  married  life  with  her 
first  husband,  William  Lynne,  Esq.  Thomas  was  de- 
scribed in  his  marriage  licence,  in  161 2,  as  'generosus,' 
but  he  afterwards  took  orders  and  became  vicar  of 
Dinton,  a  preferment  which  he  held  for  many  years. 
He  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  of  Divines,  and,  on  the  occasion  of  another 
'solemn  fast,'  June  28,  1643,  he  preached  before  the 
House  of  Commons  a  sermon  on  '  Prayer's  prevalencie 
for  Israel's  safetie,'  for  which  he  received  the  thanks 
of  the  House,  with  an  order  that  the  sermon  should 
be  printed.  This  was  done,  the  author  adding  an 
Address  or  Dedication  to  the  House  extending  over 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  259 

two  pages.  Thomas  Carter's  eldest  son,  William, 
was  called  to  the  Bar,  and  seems  to  have  died  early  ; 
but  his  second  son,  John,  born  at  Dinton  in  1622, 
entered  the  Parliamentary  army,  attained  the  rank 
of  major-general,  was  military  governor  of  North 
Wales  during  the  Protectorate,  joined  Monk  after 
the  death  of  Cromwell,  and  was  knighted  at  Whitehall 
in  1660. 

Nicholas  Carter,  of  Kempston,  the  second  of  the 
'  seaven    sones '    mentioned    on    his    father's    tomb, 
appears  to  have  maintained   friendly  relations  with 
his  kinsfolk  at  Dinton,  and  on  May  i,   1609,  he  was 
married    in    Dinton    Church    to    Alice,    daughter   of 
Christopher  Brydone,    a  landowner  in   the  adjacent 
parishes  of  Haddenham  and  Aston  Sand  ford.     The 
eldest  son  of  this  marriage,  also  Nicholas,  was  born  a 
year  later  at  Haddenham,  and  was  Elizabeth  Carter's 
great-grandfather.     Like  his  relative  and  neighbour, 
John  Carter,   he  seems  to  have  entered  the   Parlia- 
mentary army,  and  there  is  a  memorandum  in  the 
Record  Office,  conjecturally  assigned  in  the  Catalogue 
to  the  year  1665,  and  noting  that  employment  is  to 
be  given  to  three  men  who  were  '  stout  and  of  good 
conduct,'    one    of   them    being   '  Nicholas    Carter,    a 
captain  in  Colonel  Stcevens's  regiment.'     He  died  at 
Dinton    in    1679,  leaving   an  only  son,  James,  who 
settled  at  Aston  Abbotts  in  the  vicinity,  where  he  is 
traceable  through  the  register  and  other  local  records 
for   many  years,  and    where   two    sons,   James   and 
Nicolas,  were  born  to  him  by  a  first  marriage,  and 
(besides  children  who  died  young)  a  daughter  Dorcas 
by  a  second  marriage.     James,  his  eldest  son,  married 

s  2 


26o  A    WOMAN    OF 

Mary,  daughter  of  John  Vere,  of  Cester  Over  House, 
in  the  parish  of  Monk's  Kirby,  in  the  county  of 
Warwick,  Esq.,  and  was  a  merchant  in  London,  but 
left  no  children  ;  and  Nicolas,  his  second  son  and 
Elizabeth  Carter's  father,  who  entered  as  a  pensioner 
at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  in  1707,  and  gradu- 
ated M.A.  in  1714,  D.D.  in  1728,  married,  firstly, 
Margaret,  daughter  and  co-heir  of  Richard  Swayne,  of 
Bere,  in  the  county  of  Dorset,  Esq.,  and  secondly 
Mary  Bean,  of  Deal.  Miss  Swayne's  mother  was  a 
daughter  of  Thomas  Trenchard,  of  Woherton  and 
Lychet  Maltravers,  in  the  same  county,  Esq  ,  and 
through  him  was  descended  from  Paganus  Trenchard, 
who  held  land  in  Dorset  under  Henry  I.,  and  also 
from  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Edward  I., 
and  her  second  husband,  Humphrey  de  Bohun, 
fourth  Earl  of  Hereford,  third  Earl  of  Essex,  and 
Constable  of  England. 

The  foregoing  genealogy,  the  whole  of  which 
has  been  proved  by  documentary  evidence,  and  is 
registered  at  the  Heralds'  College,  appears  to  have 
been  entirely  unknown  to  the  Rev.  Montagu  Pen- 
nington, Elizabeth  Carter's  nephew  and  biographer, 
who  was  content  to  say  that  her  grandfather 
(James  Carter,  of  Aston  Abbotts)  '  was  a  consider- 
able farmer  and  grazier  in  the  Vale  of  Ailesbury, 
where  his  family  had  been  settled  for  some  genera- 
tions,' adding  that  '  probably  it  was  originally  from 
Cornwall,  since  in  the  old  ruined  chapel  of  St. 
Laurence,  near  Bodmin,  among  the  arms  of  the 
neighbouring  families  who  had  been  benefactors  to  it, 
are   those  of  Carter,  the  same  as  borne  by  those  of 


WIT    AND    WISDOM  261 

Bucks,  viz.  azure,  two  lions  rampant,  or,  which  arc  also 
borne  by  the  Carters  of  St.  Cullumbe,  in  Cornwall.' 
We  have  here  a  curious  illustration  of  the  ignorance 
and  indifference   about    matters   of  heraldry   which 
prevailed   during   much    of  the    eighteenth  century. 
It  was  by  no  means  uncommon  even  for  gentlemen 
of  good  lineage  to  be  ignorant  of  their  own  armorial 
bearings,  and  not  only  to  seek  for  information  about 
them    from  engravers  or    stationers   as    ignorant    as 
themselves,  but  actually  to  use  arms  that  were  sup- 
plied to  them  by  such   persons,    among   whom    the 
arms  of  the  Carters  of  St.  Columb  were  so  popular 
tliat    they   have   been    thus   bestowed  upon    several 
families  of  the  name  in   different  parts  of  England, 
none  of  whom  have  had  any  title  to  them,     Elizabeth 
Carter's  brothers  seem  to  have  been  beguiled  in   this 
manner,  for  variants  of  the  St.  Columb  arms  appear 
upon  their  bookplates  and  tombstones,  although  they 
were  entitled  to  the  talbot  statant  and  the  buckles 
above  mentioned,  a  bearing  of  older  date  than  the  St. 
Columb  coat.     The  family  of  Carter  of  St.  Columb 
terminated  in  three  co-heiresses  about  1670,  and  very 
few,  if  any,  of  the  persons  of  the  name  who  now  use 
their  coat  of  arms  would  be  able  to  establish  a  claim 
to  it,  or  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  Heralds'  College 
to  its  continued  employment. 

Although  Dr.  Nicolas  Carter  (who  strenuously 
objected  to  the  customary  '  h  '  in  his  baptismal  name) 
was  appointed,  soon  after  his  ordination,  to  be  Per- 
petual Curate  of  St.  George's  Church,  then  newly  built 
at  Deal  as  a  Chapel  of  Ease,  and  although  his  son,  Mr. 
John  Carter,  was  County  Chairman  of  East  Kent  for 


262  A    WOMAN    OF 

many  years,  there  was  no  connection  of  any  kind 
between  his  family  and  the  Carters  of  Crundale  and 
other  places  in  the  county,  opulent  yeomen  who  had 
been  established  therein  for  some  centuries,  and  who, 
not  having  armorial  bearings  of  their  own,  have 
sometimes  been  among  those  who  have  displayed 
the  arms  of  the  Carters  of  St.  Columb. 

Elizabeth  Carter  was  not  singular  in  her  family 
in  possessing  literary  cultivation.  Of  her  sister 
Margaret,  Pennington  writes  that,  '  Although  greatly 
inferior  to  her  sister  in  learning,  she  was  more 
than  her  equal  in  wit  and  quickness  of  parts.  In 
learning,  however,  she  was  far  from  being  deficient, 
being  a  very  good  Latin  and  French,  and  a  toler- 
able Greek  and  Italian  scholar,  with  some  know- 
ledge also  of  Hebrew.'  Their  brother,  John  Carter, 
was  a  Cambridge  graduate,  and  afterwards  a  captain 
in  the  9th  Regiment  of  Foot.  After  leaving  the 
service,  he  settled  at  Deal,  was  placed  on  the  Com- 
mission of  the  Peace  for  East  Kent,  and  became 
County  Chairman,  a  position  which  he  held  for 
nearly  forty  years.  An  obituary  notice  in  the  '  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,'  for  September  18 10,  describes  him 
as  '  a  man  of  very  lively  and  acute  natural  parts,  very 
highly  cultivated ;  an  exact  and  elegant  classical 
scholar  ;  an  excellent  linguist,  and  a  man  of  extensive 
general  reading.  His  pen  was  continually  in  his 
hand ;  and,  in  the  course  of  a  long  life,  he  was  the 
author  of  several  pamphlets  and  political  letters  of 
a  temporary  nature.'  This  gentleman  left  three 
daughters,  of  whom  the  two  younger  were  both 
authors.       Charlotte,    who     married     Captain     von 


WIT    AND     WISDOM 

Humboldt,  of  the  Hanoverian  Hussars,  wrote  a  poem 
entitled  '  Corinth,'  and  some  minor  poems  which  were 
published  with  it  in  1821  ;  and  Hannah,  her 
younger  sister,  before  her  marriage  tD  Mr.  George 
Smith,  Secretary  to  the  Navy  Board,  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  visiting  Paris  before  the  *  hundred  days.' 
She  was  one  of  a  small  party  who  were  the  first 
English  people  to  enter  France  after  the  departure 
of  Napoleon  for  Elba ;  and  she  witnessed,  in  very 
favourable  circumstances,  the  whole  of  the  celebrations 
connected  with  the  return  of  the  Bourbons.  Her 
letters  to  her  sister  excited  so  much  interest  among 
the  friends  to  whom  they  were  shown  that  the  writer 
was  induced,  especially  by  the  advice  of  Sir  Egerton 
Brydges,  to  give  them  a  wider  circulation  ;  and  they 
were  published  by  Messrs.  Longman,  in  18 14,  under 
the  title  of  Letters  from  a  Lady  to  her  Sister  during  a 
Tour  to  Paris  in  the  months  of  April  and  May,  18 14.' 
Her  descriptions  of  people  and  events  display  much 
power  of  observation,  much  liveliness,  and  no  small 
amount  of  literary  skill. 

R.  B.  C. 


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A  woman  of 
wit  and 
v;isciom;  a 

memoir  of  Elizabeth 

"Carter, 


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